Where Ikaros Fell

After Theseus escaped Knossós with Ariadne, King Minos was furious at the great inventor Daedalus, who had given Ariadne the thread that enabled Theseus to find his way through the Labyrinth. Daedalus escaped from Knossós, but Minos ordered all outgoing ships to be watched to keep Daedalus on Crete. Unable to flee by land or sea, Daedalus made wings of feathers and wax for himself and his young son Icaros.

Off they flew, but the boy, enchanted by flight, forgot his father’s warning and flew too near the sun; the wax binding the feathers melted and Icarus plummeted to his death off the south coast of the island that took his name. In the 2nd century AD, Pausanius mentions that his grave could still be seen. There’s a rock just off the coast of Chrisostomo on Ikaria that marks the spot.