DLTK's Countries and Cultures - Greek Mythology
The Story of Icarus
© written and illustrated by
On the island of Crete during the age of King Minos, there lived a man named Daedalus and his young son Icarus. Daedalus was just an ordinary man, except for one special talent – he was an inventor of strange and wonderful mechanical creations.
Now this was a very long time ago – and in this ancient time there were no televisions or cars or clocks. Instead of the television,
people learned what was new in the land by listening to the gossip at the local inn. Instead of cars, people got from place to place by walking or if they were wealthy by riding on a horse or
in a carriage. Instead of clocks people kept track of the time using sundials.
And so, the tiny mechanical bird that chirped when the sun rose – given by Daedalus to the newborn princess to celebrate her birth -- became the talk of everyone in the land. King Minos approached Daedalus to ask if he might be able to invent something less pretty but more useful and Daedalus did not disappoint. A few months later he presented the plans for a giant labyrinth to hold the half-man and half-bull monster, known as the Minotaur, prisoner.
[Index] [Story all on one page] NEXT >