vanity, and he could
brook no rival. Now his nephew and pupil, Talus, exhibited great talent,
having invented both the saw and the compass, and Daedalus, fearing lest he
might overshadow his own fame, secretly killed him by throwing him down
from the citadel of Pallas-Athene. The murder being discovered, Daedalus was
summoned before the court of the Areopagus and condemned to death; but he
made his escape to the island of Crete, where he was received by king Minos
in a manner worthy of his great reputation.

Daedalus constructed for the king the world-renowned labyrinth, which was an
immense building, full of intricate passages, intersecting each other in
such a manner, that even Daedalus himself is said, upon one occasion, to
have nearly lost his way in it; and it was in this building the king placed
the Minotaur, a monster with the head and shoulders of a bull and the body
of a man.

In the course of time the great artist became weary of his long exile, more
especially as the king, under the guise of friendship, kept him almost a
prisoner. He therefore resolved to make his escape, and for this purpose
ingeniously contrived wings for himself and his young son Icarus, whom he
diligently trained how to use them. Having awaited a favourable
opportunity, father and son commenced their flight, and were well on their
way when Icarus, pleased with the novel sensation, forgot altogether his
father's oft-repeated injunction not to approach too near the sun. The
consequence was that the wax, by means of which his wings were attached,
melted, and he fell into the sea and was drowned. The body of the
unfortunate Icarus was washed up by the tide, and was buried by the
bereaved father on an island which he called after his son, Icaria.

After this sad event, Daedalus winged his flight to the island of Sicily,
where he met with a kind welcome from {213} king Cocalus, for whom he
constructed several important public works. But no sooner did Minos receive
the intelligence that his great architect had found an asylum with Cocalus
than he sailed over to Sicily with a large army, and sent messengers to the
Sicilian king demanding the surrender of his guest. Cocalus feigned
compliance and invited Minos to his palace, where he was treacherously put
to death in a warm bath. The body of their king was brought to Agrigent by
the Cretans, where it was buried with great pomp, and over his tomb a
temple to Aphrodite was erected.

Daedalus pass