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 things which he created for the king was the labyrinth of Knossos which we have already described; but he prostituted his ability by aiding Pasiphae in her intrigue with the bull of Poseidon, and with his son Ikaros he was thrown into prison by Minos. By means of cleverly contrived wings the two managed to escape from their confinement, the father enjoining Ikaros not to fly too low, lest the wings dip in the sea and the glue which held them together be softened, nor too high, lest the heat of the sun have the same effect. Ikaros disobeyed, sought too lofty a flight, and fell headlong into that part of the Mediterranean which since that day has been known as the Ikarian Sea, whereas the more cautious Daidalos flew safely to the Sicilian city of Kamikos, whose king, Kokalos, secretly gave him protection. Thither Minos followed by ship, and resorted to a shrewd device to find out if Daidalos were really there. Showing Kokalos a snail-shell, he told him that a great reward would be bestowed upon the man who could put a linen thread through its coils, whereupon Kokalos gave the shell to Daidalos, who pierced it, tied a thread to an ant, and sent it through the hole drawing the thread behind It. Minos, knowing that only Daidalos could have done this, demanded that Kokalos surrender him, but this the Sicilian king would not do, though he consented to entertain Minos In his palace. One day when the Cretan ruler was bathing, the daughters of Kokalos suddenly appeared and killed him by pouring boiling pitch over him. His followers burled his body and erected a monument over the grave, founding the city of Minoa in the vicinity.

Daidalos is probably to be regarded as the representative of the artists and artisans of the later Minoan or Mykenalan age. One of the highly prized relics preserved in the temple of Athene Polias on the Athenian Acropolis was a folding chair said to have been fashioned by his hands. Of images attributed to him Pausanlas says that they "are somewhat uncouth to the eye, but there is a touch of the divine In them for all that."