What is Icarus? Such a formulation of the question is immediately perplexing. But the answer to it can be found in the textbook on astronomy, because Icarus was named one of the asteroids.
Asteroid
Translated from the ancient Greek language, we learn that an asteroid means "star-like." This is a very small planet that looks like a star. How many asteroids rotate in the solar system and what is Icarus among them? Now astronomers have counted about two thousand named celestial bodies. The shapes of their orbits are loop-shaped, and they themselves have an irregular appearance.
For an unknown reason, they cannot assemble into one body. They come closer to the Sun than all the planets known to us, but do not fall on it. Closer than Mercury, the asteroid Icarus approaches the sun. He also gets close to the Earth, but then again retreats and goes on his given path. Its attraction is so small that it does not affect the Earth.
But that is not all. Icarus is a famous mythical hero who has risen to the sun.
Artist and envy
In enlightened Athens there lived an amazing descendant of the legendary king Erechtheus - a sculptor, artist and architect Daedalus. To make the work more skillful, Daedalus came up with two new tools: an ax and a drill. He carved sculptures from snow-white marble. They were so perfect that they seemed alive.
Daedalus had a student, his nephew, who, growing up, began to overtake his teacher in mastery. Envy settled deep in Daedalus’s soul, and then began to grow. Once he brought his disciple to a high rocky seashore and, thinking that no one sees them, pushed his nephew from the cliff. He crashed to death. Daedalus hurried down to dig a grave and hide his crime. But Athena saw this crime and did not allow the young man to die, turning him into a partridge. A court of council of elders sentenced Daedalus to death. Then Daedalus fled to Crete.
On the island
The unprincipled king Minos, son of Europe and Zeus, received Daedalus. He protected him from the Athenians, but demanded that he work only for him. At Daedalus from the slave Navkraty the son Icarus was born. Therefore, asking what Icarus is not exactly the same as Icarus is also a man, the son of Daedalus.
The latter did a lot for Minos, his daughters and his wife: statues, a labyrinth from which it was practically impossible to find a way out. In it, Minos settled the monster born of his wife, the terrible huge Minotaur. Meanwhile, Icarus was growing up, and his father was yearning in captivity. He conceived an escape. But how can this be done? Minos ministers controlled every ship.
Thoughts of flying
Daedalus found an unusual way out of captivity. He decided to use the heavenly path, because Minos did not own the air. The inventor invented to soar above the sea, like a free bird. To do this, you need wings - that’s what!
At first, Icarus could not even imagine such a thing. He spun around in the workshop, watching his father collect wax, which required a lot. Searches for large feathers of birds, because the four wings must be large, with a huge number of feathers to withstand the severity of a man and a teenager.
In workshop
While the son of Daedalus played in the workshop, catching the fluff flying over it, the master connected the feathers with strong linen ropes. Then he crumpled and heated the wax, making it look like a bird’s wing, and gradually attached feathers to it. Daedalus attached loops to the wings so that hands could be inserted into them. When everything was ready, the inventor put on two wings, fled, waved his hands and soared in the air. The son of Daedalus looked with enthusiasm at the miracle created by his father. When the balloonist, having made a circle, sank to the ground, the joyful Icarus ran up to him. He was happy that he could fly like a father.
Instructions before the flight
Daedalus ordered his son to strictly follow him. Do not rise too high to Helios so that the heat does not melt the wax, and do not sink to the sea too low so as not to wet the feathers. They put wings on their hands and easily soared into the sky.
Icarus Flight
The father flew ahead and looked around all the time, watching his son. He first soared uncertainly, and then felt the joy of flying. Catching the air currents, he then rose higher with them, then slightly descended. Icarus completely forgot all his father's instructions and did not follow him. He became bolder and bolder. Freely flapping its wings, the teenager rose too close to the sun. Hot rays melted the wax, feathers fell out of it. The sun destroyed the wings of Icarus.
The young man crashed into the sea and drowned in its stormy waters. So the flight of naughty Icarus tragically ended.
This sea was later called the Ikari Sea, and Heracles buried the body cast ashore.
Father, looking around again, did not see his child. He noticed feathers floating on the water from above, and understood everything and cursed the day when it occurred to him to run away from Crete. Daedalus continued his journey, flying to Sicily in the kingdom of Kokala. Minos found out where the fugitive was hiding, and gathered an army to return him. The cunning, smart and cruel daughters of Kokal did not want to let go of such a wonderful master. They asked his father to welcome Minos as a welcome guest and take his bath first. In it, the girls poured Minos with boiling water, and he died. Now no one threatened Daedalus. He lived for a long time in Sicily, and then returned to Athens.
Judging by the events described in the myth, since ancient times, people dreamed of conquering the sky. But this was possible only after many millennia.