The Daedalus Delusion
Those familiar with the story of Icarus and Daedalus may remember it as I do, a legend encapsulated in the moral, “Listen to your parents; otherwise, you’re liable to do something stupid and probably die.” In brief, the myth tells how the inventor, Daedalus, and his son, Icarus, are held captive by King Minos of Crete. To escape, Daedalus fashions two pairs of mechanical wings with feathers, wood, and candlewax. He cautions Icarus not to fly too close to the sea or too close to the sun, as the ocean spray will make the feathers damp and too heavy, and the sun’s heat will cause the wax to melt. They don their wings, and Icarus, intoxicated with the newfound freedom, ascends higher and higher. Daedalus warns him to stop, but Icarus pays no heed. The wax binding Icarus’s wings melts, feathers dislodge, and he plummets to his death. So you had better listen to your parents.
This telling has a certain allure. However, the story of Icarus and Daedalus offers a deeper warning that we moderns will ignore at our own peril. The key lies at the beginning of Daedalus’s story—which is found not in Crete, but in Athens.
The Backstory
Born an Athenian citizen, Daedalus was blessed by the goddess Athena with unique creativity. His sculptures were so lifelike that Heracles destroyed dozens of them, convinced he was being ambushed. In Plato’s Meno, Socrates states:
You have not observed with attention the images of Daedalus. But perhaps there are none in your country. . . . If they are not fastened up, they play truant and run away; but if fastened, they stay where they are. To possess one of his works which is let loose does not count for much in value; it will not stay with you any more than a runaway slave: but when fastened up, it is worth a great deal, for his productions are very fine things.
With the singular exception of Daedalus, creation of these automata, “the self-acting,” is only attributed to Hephaistos, the god of the forge.
Daedalus’s nephew, Perdix (or Talos, depending on the source), was inspired by his uncle and also pursued invention. When the young Perdix displayed a creation of his own—the compass—Daedalus, realizing that his own genius would soon be surpassed, murdered him and fled with Icarus to Crete, where they were welcomed by King Minos.
Some time later, Poseidon, the god of the sea, gifted Minos with a snow-white bull, with the understanding that Minos would offer it as a sacrifice. But Minos was so taken by the creature that he kept it and sacrificed a substitute. Enraged, Poseidon caused Minos’s wife, Pasiphae, to go mad with lust for the bull. Driven to desperation, Pasiphae begged Daedalus to devise a way that she might unite with the creature. Fearing the wrath of Poseidon, Daedalus manufactured a cow (recall automata) within which Pasiphae could hide. The offspring of this unholy union was the Minotaur.
This monster lay waste to Crete, so, under Minos’s orders, Daedalus designed the Labyrinth, a giant maze in which to confine the Minotaur. Minos then demanded that Athens, his tributary, deliver seven young men and seven young women to him each year, all of whom were locked in the Labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur. Years later, Theseus, prince of Athens, ventured to Crete and slew the monster.
Minos then locked Daedalus in the Labyrinth. Accounts provide differing reasons for this. One is that Minos discovered that Daedalus gave the instructions that allowed Theseus to survive the Labyrinth. Another is that Minos learned it was Daedalus who had helped Pasiphae deceive Poseidon’s bull. Either way, Daedalus and Icarus were imprisoned, and it is here that the story of their escape begins.
Good & Bad Solutions
In his essay “Solving for Pattern,” Wendell Berry outlines three types of solutions to persistent problems. The first temporarily rectifies a problem but leads to (innumerable) issues down the road; the second immediately makes the problem worse. As Berry puts it, “A bad solution is bad, then, because it acts destructively upon the larger patterns in which it is contained.” A bad solution fails to cooperate with existing patterns of reality. On the other hand:
A good solution is good because it is in harmony with those larger patterns. . . . A good solution acts within the larger pattern the way a healthy organ acts within the body. But it must at once be understood that a healthy organ does not—as the mechanistic or industrial mind would like to say—“give” health to the body, is not exploited for the body’s health, but is a part of its health. . . .
Seth D. Mitchell received a master’s in psychology from Divine Mercy University. He currently teaches psychology and the history of Western thought at Evergreen Christian School in Leesburg, Virginia. Confirmed in the Reformed Episcopal Church, he worships at The Oatlands, Church of Our Savior.
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