A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DAEDALUS.

DAEDALUS. 927

had seized all the ships on the coast of Crete, Daedalus procured wings for himself and his son
Icarus (or made them of wood), and fastened them
on with wax. Daedalus himself flew safe over
the Aegean, but, as Icarus flew too near the sun,
the wax by which his wings were fastened on was
melted, and he dropped down and was drowned
in that part of the Aegean which was called after
him the Icarian sea. According to a more prosaic
version of the story, Pasiphae furnished Daedalus
with a ship, in which he fled to an island of the
Aegean, where Icarus was drowned in a hasty
attempt to land. According to both accounts,
Daedalus fled to Sicily, where he was protected by
Cocalus, the king of the Sicani, and where he
executed many great works of art. When Minos
heard where Daedalus had taken refuge, he sailed
with a great fleet to Sicily, where he was treacherously murdered by Cocalus or his daughters.
(Hygin. Fab. 40, 44.)
Daedalus afterwards left Sicily, to join Iolails,
son of Iphicles, in his newly founded colony in
Sardinia, and there also he executed many great
works, which were still called AaidXALa in the
time of Diodorus (iv. 30), who no doubt refers to
the Aruraghs, which were also attributed to Iolails.
(Pseud.-Aristot. de oirab. Auscult. 100.) Another
account was, that he fled from Sicily, in consequence of the pursuit of Minos, and went with
Aristaeus to Sardinia. (Paus. x. 17. ~ 3.) Of
the stories which connect him with Egypt, the
most important are the statements of Diodorus
(i. 91), that he executed works there, that he
copied his labyrinth from that in Egypt, that the
style (pvuods) of his statues was the same as that
of the ancient Egyptian statues, and that Daedalus
himself was worshipped in Egypt as a god.
The later Greek writers explained these myths
after their usual absurd plan. Thus, according to Lucian, Daedalus was a great master of
astrology, and taught the science to his son, who,
soaring above plain truths into transcendental mysteries, lost his reason, and was drowned in the
abyss of difficulties. The fable of Pasiphae is also
explained by making her a pupil of Daedalus in
astrology, and the bull is the constellation Taurus.
Palaephatus explains the wings of Daedalus as
meaning the invention of sails. (Comp. Pans. ix.
11. ~ 3.) If these fables are to be explained at
all, the only rational interpretation is, that they
were poetical inventions, setting forth the great
improvement which took place, in the mechanical
as well as in the fine arts, at the age of which
Daedalus is a personification, and also the supposed geographical course by which the fine arts
were first introduced into Greece.
When, therefore, we are told of works of art
which were referred to Daedalus, the meaning is,
that such works were executed at the period when
art began to be developed. The exact character of
the Daedalian epoch of art will be best understood
from the statements of the ancient writers respecting his works. The following is a list of the works
of sculpture and architecture which were ascribed
to him: In Crete, the cow of Pasiphae and the
labyrinth. In Sicily, near Megaris, the Colymbethra, or reservoir, from which a great river,
named Alabon, flowed into the sea; near Agrigentum, an impregnable city upon a rock, in which
was the royal palace and treasury of Cocalus; in
the territory of Selinus a cave, in which the vapour

arising from a subterranean fire was received in
such a manner, as to form a pleasant vapour bath.
He also enlarged the summit of mount Eryx by a
wall, so as to make a firm foundation for the temple of Aphrodite. For this same temple he made
a honeycomb of gold which could scarcely be distinguished from a real honeycomb. Diodorus adds,
that he was said to have executed many more
works of art in Sicily, which had perished through
the lapse of time. (Diod. 1. c.)
Several other works of art were attributed to
Daedalus, in Greece, Italy, Libya, and the islands
of the Mediterranean. Temples of Apollo at Capua
and Cumae were ascribed to him. (Sil. Ital. xii.
102; Virg. Aen. vi. 14.) In the islands called
Electridae, in the Adriatic, there were said to be
two statues, the one of tin and the other of brass,
which Daedalus made to commemorate his arrival
at those islands during his flight from Minos.
They were the images of himself and of his son
Icarus. (Pseud.-Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult. 81;

I

Steph. Byz. s.v.'HAhecrpiSat vyaro.) At Monogissa
in Caria there was a statue of Artemis ascribed
to him. (Steph. Byz. s. v.) In Egypt he was said
to be the architect of a most beautiful propylaeum
to the temple of Hephaestus at Memphis, for which
he was rewarded by the erection of a statue of
himself and made by himself, in that temple.
(Diod. i. 97.) Scylax mentions an altar on the
coast of Libya, which was sculptured with lions
and dolphins by Daedalus. (Periplus, p. 53, ed.
Hudson.) The temple of Artemis Britomartis, in
Crete, was ascribed to Daedalus. (Solinus, 11.)
There is a passage in which Pausanias mentions
all the wooden statues which he believed to be the
genuine works of Daedalus (ix. 40. ~ 2), namely,
two in Boeotia, a Hercules at Thebes, respecting
which there was a curious legend (Pans. ix. 11.
~~ 2, 3; Apollod. ii. 6. ~ 3), and a Trophonius at
Lebadeia: in Crete, an Artemis Britomartis at
Olus, and an Athena at Cnossus (the Xopds of
Ariadne is spoken of below): at Delos, a small
terminal wooden statue of Aphrodite, which was
said to have been made by Daedalus for Ariadne,
who carried it to Delos when she fled with Theseus. Pausanias adds, that these were all the
works of Daedalus which remained at his time,
for that the statue set up by the Argives in the
Heraeum and that which Antiphemus had removed
from the Sicanian city, Omphace, to Gelos, had
perished through time. (Comp. viii. 46. ~ 2.)
Elsewhere Pausanias mentions, as works ascribed
to Daedalus, a folding seat (i'(ppos diAailas) in
the temple of Athena Polias at Athens (i. 27. 1),
a wooden statue of Hercules at Corinth (ii. 4. ~ 5),
and another on the confines of Messenia and Arcadia (viii. 35. ~ 2).
The inventions and improvements attributed to
Daedalus are both artistic and mechanical. He
was the reputed inventor of carpentry and its chief
tools, the saw, the axe, the plumb-line, the auger
or gimlet, and glue. (Hesych. s. v. 'IdKapos; Plin.
H. N. vii. 56; Varro, ap. Charis. p. 106, ed.
Putsch.) He was said to have been taught the
art of carpentry by Minerva. (Hygin. Fab. 39.)
Others attribute the invention of the saw to Perdix
or Talus, the nephew of Daedalus. [PERDIX.] In
naval architecture, the invention of the mast and
yards is ascribed to Daedalus, that of the sails to
Icarus. (Plin. 1. c.) In statuary, the improvements
attributed to Daedalus were the opening of the