The Myth of Icarus

However, after Daedalus manufactured the labyrinth, he helped Theseus to kill the Minotaur and thereby free Athens from its required yearly human sacrifice to the Minotaur. Minos punished Daedalus by imprisoning him and Icarus in a tower and posting permanent guards on all roads and at the seaport to prevent their escape (Roberts & Jacobs 830). Their only route of escape was by air. So Daedalus fashioned a couple of pairs of wings made of feathers and wax. As they have been about to fly away, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too near the sun mainly because the heat would melt the wax and destroy the wings. However, "[i]n the glory of flight . . . Icarus forgot his father's warnings and started to soar higher and higher toward the sun. He continued to mount upward, despite his father's passionate cries, until the wax melted as well as the wings fell apart; he plunged to the sea and drowned" (Roberts & Jacobs 830).

Artists have included the myth of Icarus into their jobs in a variety of ways. As Turner notes, it's almost certainly most often used as being a parable intended to educate readers around the dangers of ambition (Turner 14). However, there are other interpretations and versions in the story in classical writers. Generally, these interpretations employ Icarus being a symbol of overconfidence, either childish or ambitious (Turner 21). W. H. Auden and Edward Field both make use on the myth of Icarus in their poetry.

The structure of Auden's poem echoes his theme of unobserved suffering. Auden doesn't introduce the myth of Icarus until the final eight lines with the poem, thus decreasing the apparent importance with the myth. Nonetheless, the poem is leading up to the discussion of Brueghel's Icarus as well as the Icarus myth, and thus, the myth is indeed central towards the theme of the poem. But Auden's theme is that suffering occurs whilst life goes on around you and by placing his discussion from the myth at the end of the poem, the structure now parallels the theme: "In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away/ Very leisurely in the disaster" (lines 14-15).

Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.