Daedalus in the meantime, hating Crete and his long exile
and having been touched by the love of his birthplace,
had been closed in by the sea. He said, "Although Minos obstructs
the land and waves, the sky at least lies open; we will fly that way.
Minos may possess everything, but he does not possess the air."
He spoke and sends down his mind into unknown arts
and changes his nature. For he puts feathers in a row
beginning with the littlest, and followed the long by the shorter,
so that you may think that it has grown on an incline; in this way sometimes
a countryman's pipe gradually builds up with reeds of different lengths.
Then he binds the middle feathers with thread and the lower feathers with wax
and then bends what he has created as
to mimic that of a true bird. Together with his father, the boy Icarus
was standing unaware he was facing danger,
now with a beaming face kept on capturing the feathers
which the moving air has moved, with his thumb now kept softening the yellow wax
and with his play he kept interrupting the marvelous work of his father.
After the finishing touch had been placed
on the work, the craftsman balanced his body
in twin wings and suspended his body in the open air;
"I warn you to travel
in the middle course, Icarus, if too low
the waves may weigh down your wings, if you fly too high the fires will scorch
your wings. Stay between both. I order you not to look at Boötes,
or Helice, or the drawn sword of Orion.
Seize the road with me as your leader!"
He hands over at the same time the rules of flying and fits the unknown wings on his shoulders.
Between the work and warnings the old cheeks grew wet,
and his fatherly hands trembled; He gave kisses to his son
not to be repeated, and having lifted himself up on his wings
he flies before and he fears for his comrade. Just as a bird
who has led forth a tender offspring from a high nest into the air,
and encourages [him] to follow and instructs [him] in the destructive arts
and he moves himself and looks back at the wings of his son.
Someone while catching fish with a trembling rod
either a shepherd leaning on his staff or a plowman on a plow
saw these and was stunned, and they who were able to snatch the sky,
he believed were gods. And now Juno's Samos was on the left
side (for Delos and Paros had been left behind)
and on the right was Lebynthos and Kalymnos rich in honey,
when the boy began to rejoice in his bold flight
and deserted his leader, and attracted by a desire for the sky
he took his path higher. The vicinity of the sun
softens the fragrant wax, the chains of the feathers;
the waxes had melted: he shakes his bare arms
and lacking oarage he takes up no air,
and his face shouting his father's name
is swept up in the blue sea, which takes its name from him.
But the unlucky father, no longer a father, said "Icarus!"
"Icarus!" "where are you? In what region shall I seek you?"
"Icarus!" he kept saying: he caught sight of feathers in the waves
and cursed his own arts and buried the body in a tomb,
and the land is called Icaria the name of the one buried there
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Daedalus intereā Creten longumque perōsus
exilium tactusque locī nātālis amōre
clausus erat pelagō. "terrās licet" inquit "et undās
obstruat: et cælum certē patet; ībimus illac:
omnia possideat, nōn possidet āera Mīnos."
dīxit et ignōtās animum dīmittit in artēs
natūramque novat. nam pōnit in ordine pennās
ā minimā cœptās, longam breviōre sequentī,
ut clīvō crēvisse putēs: sīc rūstica quondam
fistula disparibus paulātim surgit avēnīs;
tum līnō mediās et cērīs alligat īmās
atque ita conpositās parvō curvāmine flectit,
ut vērās imitētur avēs. puer Īcarus ūna
stābat et, ignārus sua sē tractāre pericla,
ore renīdentī modo, quās vaga mōverat aura,
captābat plūmās, flāvam modo pollice cēram
mollībat lūsūque suō mīrābile patris
impediēbat opus. postquam manus ultima cœptō
inposita est, geminās opifex librāvit in ālās
ipse suum corpus mōtāque pependit in aurā;
instruit et nātum "mediō" que "ut līmite currās,
Īcare," ait "moneō, nē, sī dēmissior ībīs,
unda gravet pennās, sī celsior, ignis adūrat:
inter utrumque volā. nec tē spectāre Boōten
aut Helicen iubeō strictumque Orīonis ensem:
mē duce carpe viam!" pariter praecepta volandī
tradit et ignōtās umerīs accommodat ālās.
inter opus monitūsque genae maduēre senīlēs,
et patriae tremuēre manūs; dedit oscula nātō
nōn iterum repetenda suō pennīsque levātus
ante volat comitīque timet, velut āles, ab altō
quae teneram prolem prōduxit in āera nīdō,
hortāturque sequī damnōsāsque ērudit artēs
et movet ipse suās et nātī respicit ālās.
hōs aliquis tremulā dum captat harundine piscēs,
aut pastor baculō stivāve innixus arātor
vidit et obstipuit, quique æthera carpere possent,
crēdidit esse deōs. et iam Iūnōnia lævā
parte Samōs (fuerant Dēlosque Parōsque relictae)
dextra Lebinthos erat fēcundaque melle Calymnē,
cum puer audācī cœpit gaudēre volātū
deseruitque ducem cælīque cupīdine tractus
altius ēgit iter. rapidī vīcīnia sōlis
mollit odōrātās, pennārum vincula, cērās;
tabuerant cēræ: nūdōs quatit ille lacertōs,
remigiōque carēns non ullās percipit aurās,
oraque cæruleā patrium clāmantia nōmen
excipiuntur aquā, quae nōmen traxit ab illō.
at pater infēlix, nec iam pater, "Īcare," dīxit,
"Īcare," dīxit "ubi es? quā tē regiōne requīram?"
"Īcare" dīcēbat: pennās aspexit in undīs
devōvitque suās artēs corpusque sepulcrō
condidit, et tellūs ā nōmine dicta sepultī.
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