Icarus Winged Man Greek Mythology Alabaster Statue Gold Tone 6.2 Inches .Height: 6.2 inches (16 cm) Width: 6.2 inches (16 cm) Depth: 3.3 inches (8.5 cm) Weight: 0.45 lbs (206 gr). In Greek mythology, Icarus (/ˈɪkərəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἴκαρος, romanized: Íkaros, pronounced [ǐːkaros]) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the labyrinth of Crete.Icarus's father Daedalus, a very talented Athenian craftsman, built the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to imprison the minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster born of his wife and the Cretan bull. Minos imprisoned Daedalus himself in the labyrinth because he gave Minos's daughter, Ariadne, a clew (or ball of string) in order to help Theseus, the enemy of Minos, to escape the labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur. Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers for himself and his son. Before trying to escape the island, he warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea, but to follow his path of flight. Overcome by giddiness while flying, Icarus disobeyed his father and soared into the sky. He came too close to the sun, and the heat melted the wax holding his feathers together. One by one, Icarus's feathers fell, until he fell into the sea and drowned. Daedalus wept for his son and called the nearest land Icaria (an island southwest of Samos) in memory of him. Today, the supposed site of his burial on the island bears his name, and the sea near Icaria in which he drowned is called the Icarian Sea. According to scholia on Euripides, Icarus fashioned himself greater than Helios the Sun himself, and the god punished him by directing his powerful rays at him, melting the wax. Afterwards, it was Helios who named the Icarian sea after Icarus.