Dædalus

Dædalus, a figure in Greek Mythology who personified the beginning of the arts of sculpture and architecture. He was of the old Athenian royal race of the Erechtheidae. Having killed his nephew and pupil in envy at his growing skill, he had to flee to Crete, where he made the well-known cow for Queen Pasiphaë, and afterwards for King Minos the famous labyrinth to confine the Minotaur. Minos next imprisoned Dædalus, but he escaped with the help of Pasiphaë, and formed wings for himself and his son Icarus, with which to fly across the sea. He himself flew safe across the Ægean, but unhappily Icarus flew too near the sun, the heat of which melted the wax that fastened his wings to him, so that he dropped into the sea, and left his name to be borne by that part of the Ægean into which he fell. Dædalus made his way to Sicily. Some accounts made him first alight at Cumæ in Italy, where he dedicated his wings to Apollo. Works of art were freely ascribed to Dædalus in Greece, Italy, Libya, and the Mediterranean islands. The name Dadala was applied to the earlier painted and gilded wooden statues of the gods.