l come upon thee and on me woe unutterable."

In his dreams that night Icarus flew, and when he awoke, fearing to
find only the haunting remembrance of a dream, he found his father
standing by the side of his bed of soft leaves under the shadowy
cypresses, ready to bind on his willing shoulders the great pinions
that he had made.

Gentle Dawn, the rosy-fingered, was slowly making her way up from the
East when Daedalus and Icarus began their flight. Slowly they went at
first, and the goat-herds who tended their flocks on the slopes of
Mount Ida looked up in fear when they saw the dark shadows of their
wings and marked the monster birds making their way out to sea. From
the river beds the waterfowl arose from the reeds, and with great
outcry flew with all their swiftness to escape them. And down by the
seashore the mariners' hearts sank within them as they watched,
believing that a sight so strange must be a portent of disaster.
Homewards they went in haste to offer sacrifices on the altars of
Poseidon, ruler of the deep.

Samos and Delos were passed on the left and Lebynthos on the right,
long ere the sun-god had started on his daily course, and as the
mighty wings of Icarus cleft the cold air, the boy's slim body grew
chilled, and he longed for the sun's rays to turn the waters of the
AEgean Sea over which he flew from green-grey into limpid sapphire and
emerald and burning gold. Towards Sicily he and his father bent their
course, and when they saw the beautiful island afar off lying like a
gem in the sea, Apollo made the waves in which it lay, for it a
fitting setting. With a cry of joy Icarus marked the sun's rays paint
the chill water, and Apollo looked down at the great white-winged
bird, a snowy swan with the face and form of a beautiful boy, who sped
exulting onwards, while a clumsier thing, with wings of darker hue,
followed less quickly, in the same line of flight. As the god looked,
the warmth that radiated from his chariot touched the icy limbs of
Icarus as with the caressing touch of gentle, life-giving hands. Not
long before, his flight had lagged a little, but now it seemed as if
new life was his. Like a bird that wheels and soars and dives as if
for lightness of heart, so did Icarus, until each feather of his
plumage had a sheen of silver and of gold. Down, down, he darted, so
near the water that almost the white-tipped waves caught at his wings
as he skimmed over them. Then up, up, up he soared, ever h