Daedalus

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

Daedalus was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power in Greek mythology. Dedalus is mentioned in List of Lycian place names. In Pliny's Natural History (7.198) he is credited with inventing carpentry, including tools like the axe, saw, glue, and more.[1] Supposedly, he first invented masts and sails for ships for the navy of King Minos. In Boeotia there was a festival called Daedala.

Variants

Jat Gotras Namesake

Father of Icarus

Daedalus is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, and possibly also the father of Iapyx. Among his most famous creations are the wooden cow for Pasiphaë, the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete which imprisoned the Minotaur, and wings that he and his son Icarus used to attempt to escape Crete. It was during this escape that Icarus did not heed his father's warnings and flew too close to the sun; the wax holding his wings together melted and Icarus fell to his death.

Epigraphic evidence

The name Daidalos seems to be attested in Linear B, a writing system used to record Mycenaean Greek. The name appears in the form da-da-re-jo-de, possibly referring to a sanctuary.[3][4][5]

Family

Daedalus's parentage was supplied as a later addition, with various authors attributing different parents to him. His father is claimed to be either Eupalamus,[6] Metion,[7] or Palamaon.[8] Similarly, his mother was either Alcippe,[9] Iphinoe,[10] Phrasmede[11] or Merope, daughter of King Erechtheus.[12] Daedalus had two sons: Icarus[13] and Iapyx,[14] along with a nephew named either Talos, Calos, or Perdix.[15]

The Athenians made Cretan-born Daedalus Athenian-born, the grandson of the ancient king Erechtheus,[16] claiming that Daedalus fled to Crete after killing his nephew.[17]

Inventor, architect, artist

Daedalus is first mentioned in roughly 1400 BC on the Knossian Linear B tablets. He is later mentioned by Homer as the creator of a dancing floor for Ariadne, similar to that which Hephaestus placed on the Shield of Achilles.[18] It is clear that Daedalus was not an original character of Homer's. Rather, Homer was referencing mythology that his audience was already familiar with.[19]


Daedalus is not mentioned again in literature until the fifth century BC, but he is widely praised as an inventor, artist, and architect, though classical sources disagree on which inventions exactly are attributable to him. In Pliny's Natural History (7.198) he is credited with inventing carpentry, including tools like the axe, saw, glue, and more.[20] Supposedly, he first invented masts and sails for ships for the navy of King Minos. He is also said to have carved statues so spirited they appeared to be living and moving.[21] Pausanias, in traveling around Greece, attributed to Daedalus numerous archaic wooden cult figures that impressed him. In fact, so many other statues and artworks are attributed to Daedalus by Pausanias and various other sources that likely many of them were never made by him.[22]

Daedalus gave his name, eponymously, to many Greek craftsmen and many Greek contraptions and inventions that represented dextrous skill. A specific sort of early Greek sculptures are named Daedalic sculpture in his honor.[23]

In Boeotia there was a festival, the Daedala, in which a temporary wooden altar was fashioned and an effigy was made from an oak-tree and dressed in bridal attire. It was carried in a cart with a woman who acted as bridesmaid. The image was called daedala.[24]Some sources claim that the daedala did not receive their name from Daedalus, but the opposite. Pausanias claims that Daedalus was not the name given to the inventor at birth, but that he was named so later after the daedala.[25]

Ch.20 Description of Arabia — Voyage of Nearchus (p.408-410)

Arrian[26]..... The common report is, that he heard that the Arabs venerated only two gods, Uranus and Dionysus[1]; the former because he is visible and contains in himself the heavenly luminaries, especially the sun, from which emanates the greatest and most evident benefit to all things human; and the latter on account of the fame he acquired by his expedition into India. Therefore he thought himself quite worthy to be considered by the Arabs as a third god, since he had performed deeds by no means inferior to those of Dionysus. If then he could conquer the Arabs, he intended to grant them the privilege of conducting their government according to their own customs, as he had already done to the Indians. The fertility of the land was a secret inducement to him to invade it; because he heard that the people obtained cassia from the lakes, and myrrh and frankincense from the trees; that cinnamon was cut from the shrubs, and that the meadows produce spikenard without any cultivation.[2] As to the size of the country, he was informed that the seaboard of Arabia was not less in extent than that of India; that near it lie many islands; that in all parts of the country there were harbours sufficiently commodious to provide anchorage for his fleet, and that it supplied sites for founding cities, which would become flourishing. He was also informed that there were two islands in the sea facing the mouth of the Euphrates, the first of which was not far from the place where the waters of that river are discharged into the sea, being about 120 stades[3] distant from the shore and the river's mouth. This is the smaller of the two, and was densely covered with every kind of timber. In it was also a temple of Artemis, around which the inhabitants themselves spent their lives. The island was devoted to the use of wild goats and stags, which were allowed to range at large as being dedicated to Artemis. It was unlawful to chase them unless any one wished to offer sacrifice to the goddess; and for this purpose alone it was lawful to chase them. Aristobulus says that Alexander ordered this island to be called Icarus, after the island so named in the Aegean Sea,[4] on which, as the report goes, Icarus, son of Daedalus fell, when the wax, by which the wings had been fastened to him, melted. For he did not fly near the earth, according to his father's injunctions, but senselessly flying far aloft, he allowed the sun to soften and loosen the wax. Icarus left his name to the island and the sea, the former being called Icarus and the latter the Icarian. The other island was said to be distant from, the mouth of the Euphrates about a day and night's voyage for a ship running before the breeze. Its name was Tylus[5]; it was large and most of it neither rugged nor woody, but suitable for producing cultivated fruits and all things in due season. Some of this information was imparted to Alexander by Archias, who was sent with a triacontor to investigate the course of the coasting voyage to Arabia, and who went as far as the island of Tylus, but durst not pass beyond that point. Androsthenes[6] was despatched with another triacontor and sailed to a part of the peninsula of Arabia. Hieron of Soli the pilot also received a triacontor from Alexander and advanced farthest of those whom he despatched to this region; for he had received instructions to sail round the whole Arabian peninsula as far as the Arabian Gulf near Egypt over against Heroopolis.[7] Although he coasted along the country of the Arabs to a great distance he durst not go as far as he was ordered; but returning to Alexander he reported that the size of the peninsula was marvellous, being only a little smaller than the country of the Indians, and its extremity projected far into the Great Sea.[8] Nearchus indeed in his voyage from India had seen this stretching out a little, before he turned aside into the Persian Gulf, and he was almost induced to cross over to it. The pilot Onesicritus thought they ought to have gone thither; but Nearchus says that he himself prevented it, so that after sailing right round the Persian Gulf he might be able to give a report to Alexander that he had accomplished the voyage on which he had sent him. For Nearchus said he had not been despatched to navigate the Great Sea, but to explore the land bordering on the sea, to find out what men inhabit it, to discover the harbours and rivers in it, to ascertain the customs of the people, and to see if any of the country was fertile and if any was sterile. This was the reason why Alexander's naval expedition returned in safety; for if it had sailed beyond the deserts of Arabia, it would not have returned in safety. This is said also to have been the reason why Hieron turned back.[9]

1. Cf. Herodotus, iii. 8.

2. Cf. Herodotus, ii. 40, 86; iii. 110-112; Strabo, xvi. 4; Pliny (Nat. Hist. xii.).

3. About 17 miles.

4. One of the Sporades, west of Samos, now called Nitaria. Cf. Horace (Carm., iv. 2, 2) and Ovid (Fasti, iv. 28).

5. Called Tyrus by Strabo (xvi. 3). It is now called Bahrein, and is celebrated for pearl fisheries.

6. A fragment of the work of Androsthenes descriptive of his voyage is preserved by Athenaeus (iii. p. 936).

7. Probably Ramses. Its ruins are at Abu-Kesheb.

8. Probably the projection now called Ras-al-Had.

9. Cf. Arrian (Indica, 82).

p.408-410

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors, Their Careers and Extant Works, The Sculptors, The Archaic Period". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  2. ↑ Wells, John C. (1990). Longman pronunciation dictionary. Harlow, England: Longman. p. 185. ISBN 0-582-05383-8.
  3. ↑ Wachter, Rudolf. "Homeric – Mycenaean Word Index (MYC)". In: Prolegomena. Edited by Joachim Latacz, Anton Bierl and Stuart Douglas Olson [English Edition. Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, 2015. p. 241. doi:10.1515/9781501501746-015
  4. ↑ Morris, Sarah P. Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art. Princeton University Press, 1995. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-691-00160-9.
  5. ↑ Kerényi, Carl. Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. Volume 130 de Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology. Princeton University Press, 2020 [1976]. pp. 100-101. ISBN 978-0-691-21410-8.
  6. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 39, 244 & 274; Servius on Virgil, Aeneid 6.14; Suida, s.v. Πέρδικος ἱερόν; Scholiast on Plato, Republic 7.529d
  7. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, 4.76.1; Plato, Ion 533a; Scholia on Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 472
  8. ↑ Pausanias, 9.3.2
  9. ↑ Apollodorus, 3.15.9; Tzetzes, Chiliades 1.490; Scholiast on Plato, Ion 121a
  10. ↑ Scholia on Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 468 & 472
  11. ↑ Scholia on Plato, The Republic p. 529
  12. ↑ Plutarch, Theseus 19.5
  13. ↑ "P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses, Book 8, line 183". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  14. ↑ "Strabo, Geography, Book 6, chapter 3, section 2". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  15. ↑ "Apollodorus, Library, book 3, chapter 15, section 8". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  16. ↑ The son of Eupalamus, according to Hyginus, Fabulae 39 "ATHENA MYTHS 5 FAVOUR - Greek Mythology". www.theoi.com.
  17. ↑ "Apollodorus, Library, book 3, chapter 15, section 8". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  18. ↑ "Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors, Their Careers and Extant Works, The Sculptors, The Archaic Period". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  19. ↑ Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer, 2009:187, 178.
  20. ↑ "Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors, Their Careers and Extant Works, The Sculptors, The Archaic Period". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  21. ↑ William Godwin (1876). "Lives of the Necromancers". p. 40.
  22. ↑ "Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors, Their Careers and Extant Works, The Sculptors, The Archaic Period". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  23. ↑ "Daedalic sculpture". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  24. ↑ "Pausanias, Description of Greece, Boeotia, chapter 3". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  25. ↑ "Pausanias, Description of Greece, Boeotia, chapter 3". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  26. ↑ The Anabasis of Alexander/7b, p.408-410
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