Do not sink too low.' 'I am listening,' said Icarus. 'Now Icarus,' said Daedalus, 'be careful. Finally he strapped two of these great man-made wings on his shoulders and kitted out his son in an identical way. Then he covered them with fat and beeswax, and fitted them with feathers carefully arranged. And he built four frames of bones stuck together with collagen glue. Now Icarus was assigned to collect all the wax from the candles, all the fat from the food, all the bones that Minos sent them, while Daedalus collected feathers and studied the pigeons they came from. 'It is, my son,' said Daedalus and, for the first time in his life, he kissed him. For pigeons are our friends now.' 'Is 'idiot' a nice word?' asked Icarus. But blow out the candles, save the bones, spit out the fat and don't shoo off the pigeons. 'Now I see that you are a genius of a sort. We have candles and the views really are amazing.' 'My darling idiot son,' said Daedalus, brightening. 'I will shoo off the pigeons and there is nothing I like more than gristle, fat and bones. For Minos gave them only gristle, fat and bones. The room was covered in filth for it had already become a favourite roost for pigeons here he would be imprisoned until the end of his years with only his unintelligent son for company.īitter was the candlelit supper the prisoners enjoyed that night. When they finally reached their prison at the top of the endless staircase, Daedalus was most dejected. Minos ordered his guards to take Daedalus away, and his son Icarus also, and he locked them up at the top of a tower as many-storeyed as the Labyrinth was many-acred. It is but a single room, but it has a singular advantage: it sits at the top of a very tall tower the views, I am told, are amazing.' It has no twists and turns, nor corridors, nor feints. Well, I am less ingenious than you, but I have built nevertheless a prison of my own devising, which I can assure you you will never get out of. Doubtless you were feeling homesick and thought the son of the king of Athens would smooth your return from exile. 'You helped him, for only you have access to the Labyrinth's plans. For how could a young girl master the paths of the Labyrinth?' 'Minos, great lord, it is a mystery to me also, for there is only one map, and it remains in my possession.' 'Let me solve the mystery for you,' said Minos. She is no accomplice but a victim, kidnapped and probably ravished by now, by your Prince Theseus. 'And who do you think helped him?' 'Well, the princess Ariadne has gone missing, perhaps she.'' 'Athenian, how dare you attempt to blame a blameless girl, who is not here to defend herself. 'For my Labyrinth is quite inescapable.' 'I drew the same conclusion,' said Minos. 'Great Minos, offspring of Zeus and Europa, Theseus must have had help,' said Daedalus. So how do you explain what has happened?' It would not even need a gate, you said, so confident were you of your design. Now Theseus, a prince of Athens, has killed my bull of a son and escaped from the Labyrinth which you devised so cleverly, you said, that neither my son nor any of the gifts I sent to him would ever be able to find a way out. 'The Athenians sent you into exile for your jealous crime, but I took pity on you. Even now he is scared of heights and shows how clever he is by flying low over scrub to avoid raptors and hunters.

And Athena herself, your patron, felt pity for your apprentice and transformed him into a partridge. For you had killed Perdix, your nephew, pushing him off the Acropolis, envious of his accomplishments, when you saw him invent the tooth-edged saw, and the potter's wheel and compasses, and knew that he surpassed you in inventiveness. You took me by the knees in pitiful supplication and asked me for asylum. He summoned Daedalus: 'Daedalus, Athenian, once you came to me with Icarus your son. When Minos discovered that the Minotaur had been killed, the Athenians had escaped and his precious Ariadne had left with them, he was furious.

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