Source Verification: Daedalus
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why was Daedalus exiled from Athens?
Ovid says he killed his own nephew and apprentice, a young inventor whose early talent threatened to surpass his teacher's, by throwing him from the height of the Acropolis. Convicted of the killing, Daedalus fled Athens for Crete, which is how he ended up in King Minos's service at all.
Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.236-259
What did Daedalus build for King Minos?
Two things, in sequence: a hollow wooden cow that let Queen Pasiphaë conceive the Minotaur, and afterward the Labyrinth itself, a maze built beneath the palace at Knossos specifically to contain the creature that union produced, designed so that no one inside could easily find the way back out.
Source: Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.15.8
Why did Minos imprison Daedalus?
Because Daedalus had given away the one secret that made the Labyrinth inescapable. Ariadne, Minos's own daughter, asked him how to help Theseus survive the maze, and Daedalus told her to give Theseus a thread to unwind going in and follow back out - the trick Theseus used to kill the Minotaur and escape.
Source: Apollodorus, Bibliotheca Epitome 1.12-1.13
How did Daedalus escape Crete?
With every ship and road off the island watched by Minos, Daedalus built two pairs of wings from feathers held together with wax and flew off the island with his son Icarus rather than attempting escape by land or sea. Daedalus himself flew the route safely by keeping to the middle course he had prescribed.
Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.183-235
What happened to Daedalus after Icarus died?
He completed the flight alone to Sicily and took refuge with King Cocalus. Minos eventually traced him there using a riddle involving threading a spiral seashell that only Daedalus could solve, but Cocalus's own daughters killed Minos in his bath before he could reclaim the craftsman.
Source: Apollodorus, Bibliotheca Epitome 1.14-15
Where Accounts Differ
- whether his nephew is named Talos or Perdix
- Some sources name Daedalus's nephew Talos, others Perdix, for the same killed apprentice; this project keeps the two figures separate from the bronze automaton Talos who guards Crete, a distinct character in this corpus.
Sources
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.183-235
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.236-259
- Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.15.8
- Apollodorus, Bibliotheca Epitome 1.14-15
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)