Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/945

Rh DAEDALUS. had seized all the ships on the coast of Crete, Dae- dalus 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 Coccalus, 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 treach- erously murdered by Cocalus or his daughters. (Hygin. Fab. 40, 44.) Daedalus afterwards left Sicily, to join lolaiis, Ron of Iphicles, in his newly founded colony in Sardinia, and there also he executed many great works, which were still called AaiMheia in the time of Diodorus ( iv. 30), who no doubt refers to the Nuraylis^ which were also attributed to lolalis. ( Pseud.- Aristot. de Mirah. Ausculi. 100.) Another account was, that he fled from Sicily, in conse- quence of the pursuit of Minos, and went with Aristaeus to Sardinia. (Pans. 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 Egj'pt, that the style {f>v6i^6s) 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, accord- ing to Lucian, Daedalus was a great master of astrology, and taught the science to his son, who, soaring above plain truths into transcendental mys- teries, lost his reason, and was drowned in the abyss of difliculties. 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 sup- posed 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 respect- ing 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 Colym- bethra, or reservoir, from which a great river, named Alabon, flowed into the sea ; near Agrigen- tum, 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 DAEDALUS. 927 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 tem- ple of Aphrodite. For this same temple he made a honeycomb of gold which could scarcely be dis- tinguished 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. I, 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. xiL 102; Y'lTg. Ae7i. v. 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 Mirah. Auscult. 81 ; Steph. Byz, s.v. 'HAe/crptSoi vriam.) At Monogissiv 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, tAvo in Boeotia, a Hercules at Thebes, respecting which there was a curious legend (Pans. ix. 11. §§ 2, 3 ; ApoUod. ii. 6. § 3), and a Trophonius at Lebadeia : in Crete, an Artemis Britomartis at Olus, and an Athena at Cnossus (the x^P^'s 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 The- seus. 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, Oraphace, to Gelos, had perished through time. (Comp. viii. 46. § 2.) Elsewhere Pausanias mentions, as works ascribed to Daedalus, a folding seat (Sitppos OKAadias) 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 Arca- dia (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. 'iKoipios; Plin. //. N. vii. 56; Varro, ap. Cluxris. 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 Icams. (Plin. /. c.) In statuary, the improvements attributed to Daedalus were the opening of the