Original subtitles

(mysterious instrumental music)

(thuds) (water splashing)

- [Man] It's all over.

He will never fly again.

He is dead.

Icarus is dead.

(somber instrumental music)

And yet, Daedalus, his father, had warned him.

He had told him to be careful,

to make sure that he always remained midway

between the sea and the sun.

If he flew too low,

the foam of the waves would soak his wings.

If he flew too high, the heat of the sun would scorch them.

(dramatic music)

But Icarus did not heed his father's warning.

Still, what kind of father would make a pair of wings

for his son and encourage him to rival the flight of birds?

What an insane idea.

Daedalus must have been out of his mind

to thus risk the life of the one person he truly cared for.

But in fact, no, not at all.

Daedalus was a most extraordinary inventor who had learned

his skills from the goddess Athena herself.

He was also a brilliant architect, a gifted artist,

a sculptor who mastered his art to such perfection

that it was said his statues had to be chained

so that they would not run away.

He once made a sculpture of Heracles that was so true

to life that when the hero himself saw it

he was outraged and smashed it.

(crashing)

But Daedalus had one fault.

He was jealous.

He could not bear the thought of anyone being more

talented than he was.

One morning however, his nephew, Talos, invented the saw.

Inspired by a fish bone, the young apprentice had copied it

by carving out a series of notches in a piece of iron.

The citizens of Athens were impressed by this invention.

Daedalus on the other hand,

flew into an uncontrollable rage.

One morning he led Talos up to the temple of Athena

and pushed him off.

(dramatic music)

Then he hurried back down to the base of the Acropolis

and put Talos's body into a bag.

He was planning to bury his nephew in secret.

But his despicable crime was soon discovered.

Daedalus was arrested and tried.

In the end, because his many inventions had rendered

a great service to humanity, the Athenians decided not

to send him to prison, but to banish him from the city.

That is how Daedalus and his son Icarus came to live

in Crete, in the court of its powerful King Minos.

But that does not explain why Daedalus sent his son

flying up into the sky

and thus risked seeing him come crashing down.

(wind softly whooshing)

It all began a long, long time ago.

(serious instrumental music)

Zeus, whose reputation as a charmer, was by now firmly

established, had just left his latest conquest,

a beautiful Venetian princess name Europa.

After changing himself into the form of a bull,

he had abducted Europa from the shores of Tia

and whisked her away to the mountains of Crete.

Europa bore him three beautiful children, all boys.

Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon.

Their mother did not remain single for very long.

There were many contenders.

They all considered it a great honor to woo the woman

who had been the lover of the master of Olympus.

It was Asterius, the prince who reigned over Crete,

who won her hand.

Asterius married Europa and adopted her children,

who then became his heirs.

Many years went by.

Then one day in winter, Asterius died.

The funeral was barely over before one of his three

adopted sons, Minos, came forth and asserted his right

to the crown.

The two other brothers however, did not agree.

In order to support his claim to the throne,

Minos maintained that the Gods had given the kingdom to him

and as evidence, he declared that they would grant him

anything he desired to ask of them.

His brothers were, to say the least, rather skeptical.

They dared him to prove it.

Minos took up the challenge.

After dedicating a temple to Poseidon,

he begged the god of the sea to send a bull out of the waves

which he would then offer as a sacrifice.

Then the impossible happened.

(dramatic music)

As Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon and the entire congregation

looked on, a magnificent bull with a dazzling white coat

emerged from the sea.

Never in living memory had anyone ever seen

such a marvelous creature.

Minos himself was struck with awe.

He probably had not expected to see his wish granted

in such an extraordinary way.

It was such a wondrous act,

that his brothers had to give in.

Minos became king of Crete.

(majestic instrumental music)

Minos thought Poseidon's bull was so beautiful

that he decided to deceive the god.

Instead of sacrificing the animal as he had promised,

he sent it to be added to his own herds

and slaughtered another in its place.

Poseidon did not at all appreciate

the King's double dealing.

The erasable god planned his revenge.

It would be dreadful.

(ominous instrumental music)

A king without a queen is not quite a king.

Once he had been crowned, Minos took as his wife

a young woman named Paciphae,

which means she who shines for all.

Paciphae was the daughter of the sun god, Helios,

and the nymph, Crete.

She was said to be immortal.

She was also said to be a magician because she was able

to kill any woman who tried to take her husband

away from her.

Anyone who slept with him would be covered with scorpions

and serpents that were discharged from his body.

Three children were born of this royal union.

Two daughters, Ariadne and Phaedra,

and a son, Androgeos.

The royal couple were happy together.

But unbeknownst to them, the offended Poseidon had concocted

a diabolical scheme.

One night the god of the oceans

crept into queen Paciphae's bedroom.

He circled around her bed, whispering words that no one

could understand and then left.

At first glance, nothing in particular seemed to happen.

At first glance, because at dawn Paciphae woke up

and to her astonishment found that she was madly in love,

inflamed with passion, with an overpowering passion.

For her husband?

No.

Paciphae had fallen in love with the white bull

that Minos had failed to sacrifice.

In her confusion, not knowing how to slake the desire

that burned within her, the irresistible desire

that she felt for Poseidon's white bull,

Queen Paciphae went to see Daedalus.

After he was banished from Athens, the renowned inventor

had taken up residence in the royal court,

where he enchanted Minos and his family

with the animated wooden dolls and many other wonders

he made for them.

He would surely be able to find a way to help Paciphae.

Daedalus listened to the queen.

What she was seeking defied his imagination.

She was seeking to satisfy her desire for the white bull.

Daedalus hesitated.

Such a union between a woman and an animal

seemed repulsive to him.

He wanted to refuse.

But Paciphae threatened to have him and his son Icarus

put to death if he did not obey her immediately.

Daedalus had no choice.

He had an idea.

He built a wooden cow, covered it with a thick cow hide,

and then mounted it on wheels,

which were concealed in its hooves.

After pushing it into the meadow where Poseidon's bull

was grazing, he showed Paciphae how to get inside

and how to open the little folded doors

in the back of the cow.

Then he quietly withdrew,

preferring not to witness what would happen next.

(dramatic music)

Nine months later, from this unnatural coupling,

was born a terrifying beast, a hybrid creature.

It had a man's body with mighty shoulders

and a broad chest, together with a bull's head.

The Cretans called it the Minotaur,

which means the bull of Minos.

Minos was livid with rage.

His first impulse was to punish Daedalus

for his thoughtless act, but then he changed his mind.

What Daedalus did, he decided, Daedalus must undo.

He ordered the architect to build a fool proof prison

from which the Minotaur,

that affront to the sacred institution of marriage,

could never escape.

(ominous music)

Daedalus immediately went to work.

Assisted by his young son, Icarus,

he began constructing the most extraordinary architectural

structure, a labyrinth.

A labyrinth that would be so complex that anyone who entered

it would never be able to find his way out again.

Anyone, including its creator.

It was in this open air fortress

that Minos had the Minotaur imprisoned.

But then the king received some devastating news.

Androgeos, his only son, had been killed in Athens

under suspicious circumstances.

Minos held Aegeus, the monarch who ruled over Athens,

responsible for his death.

(dramatic music)

War broke out.

Athens was under siege.

The people of the city were facing starvation.

In order to lift the siege,

the Athenians sent word to Minos that they would submit

to any terms of surrender he wanted.

(dramatic music)

Minos did not think for very long.

He demanded a payment of seven boys and seven girls

to be sent to Crete every year,

so that he might offer them to the Minotaur.

The Athenians had no choice.

They had been defeated.

For many years they sent over the terrible tribute

demanded by Minos.

(dramatic music)

Until one day Theseus,

the young heir to the throne of Athens,

decided to take it upon himself to eliminate the monster.

Even though his father tried to dissuade him,

Theseus joined the group of future victims

and left for Crete.

He was determined to slay the Minotaur.

When he arrived in Crete,

Theseus was taken to the palace of King Minos.

His daughter, the Princess Ariadne,

saw him and immediately fell in love with him.

She did not want the handsome young man to be devoured

by the Minotaur or lost in the labyrinth.

Ariadne confided her thoughts

to the only man who could help her, Daedalus.

He was moved by the princess's feelings of love

by her desperation, and he decided to help her.

A decision that would turn out to have fateful consequences.

(sweet instrumental music)

On the day that Theseus was to enter the labyrinth,

Daedalus slipped a ball of thread into Ariadne's hand.

She was to give it to Theseus.

Once inside, all he had to do was to unravel the thread

as he moved deeper into the maze

and then retrace his steps to find his way out again.

(ominous sounds)

Everything went exactly as planned.

Theseus killed the Minotaur and was able to make his way

safely out of the labyrinth by following Ariadne's thread.

(ominous music)

Then on that very same day, he took the princess with him

and they sailed away from Crete.

The news of what had happened threw Minos into a cold rage.

He immediately sent out orders to have Daedalus

and Icarus arrested and thrown into the labyrinth.

(dramatic music)

So there they were, Daedalus and Icarus,

imprisoned in the very structure they

themselves had created.

Although it was Daedalus who had designed the labyrinth,

he like everyone else, was unable to find his way out

through the stifling, twisting rows of arid stone corridors.

He just kept going round and round in circles.

Finally, he had to admit defeat.

He and his son were trapped in the bowels of his own maze.

Icarus was filled with despair.

He sat there on the dusty floor of the labyrinth.

What else could he do but wait?

Wait for who knows how long

as life passed him by, slowly yet relentlessly.

And then, when he pulled himself together and tried to find

a way out of this prison, it was always the same thing.

He became bewildered, lost, even more discouraged.

So Icarus sat back down and gazed at the sky.

(dramatic music)

The sky, which symbolized the freedom that he no longer had.

Icarus brooded despondently.

Daedalus, in the meantime, was busy thinking.

It wasn't the sky he was contemplating, but the birds.

(dramatic music)

Up in the air above his head, they circled, they drifted,

they soared, rising higher, vanishing into the clouds.

They pursued each other in an aerial ballet

full of lightness and elegance

and then came down to perch gently on top of the high walls

of the labyrinth.

(dramatic music)

An idea began to form in Daedalus's head.

It would, of course, be impossible to climb over the walls

of the labyrinth, but there was perhaps,

if one dared, another way to escape.

The old craftsman was willing to give it a try.

He shook Icarus out of his torpor and said,

pointing his finger at the clouds, we will leave by the sky.

Icarus was dumbfounded.

But knowing how clever and creative his father was,

he did not ask any questions.

He had faith in him.

Right away, Daedalus told him to gather all of the bird

feathers he could find.

They both set off to accomplish

this long and laborious task.

(dramatic music)

The two prisoners then took the feathers and laid them

side by side, lining them up meticulously one by one

from the smallest to the largest in size,

so that their tips seemed to rise in a slope.

When they'd finished arranging the feathers,

Daedalus tied them together using flaxen threads

torn from his tunic.

Then after binding them with wax,

he gave the whole structure a slight curve

in order to imitate the wings of a real bird.

(dramatic music)

Icarus did the same thing, little knowing that he was

making the instrument that would be the cause

of his downfall.

(dramatic music)

Daedalus put the wings on his son's back.

He adjusted them and showed Icarus how to use them,

telling him repeatedly how important it was

to stay close to him and not to stray.

Father and son were now ready.

With Daedalus in front, they took off.

There they were, rising into the air,

climbing higher into the sky,

leaving the labyrinth far behind.

From time to time, Daedalus would turn to check on his son

to make sure he was following close behind

and staying on course.

In his excitement, Icarus took to flying more and more

freely through the air.

His youthfulness made him reckless.

Gradually, Icarus, who kept soaring higher and higher,

began to stray away from his father's path.

Daedalus called out to him.

He implored his son to come back.

But the old man's voice was carried away by the wind.

Besides, Icarus was no longer listening.

He was oblivious to anything but the jubilation of flying,

of rising to greater and greater heights.

Why stay in between?

Why take the middle course when we're offered

the entire expanse of the sky?

Let's go further, even higher.

Nothing can stop us.

(wind softly whooshing)

For a moment or two,

Icarus felt like the kind of the universe.

Now that he could fly, anything seemed possible to him.

But as he continued to climb the rays of the god of the sun

began to melt the wax in his wings.

All of a sudden, his flapping arms were no longer

sustained by the wind.

Icarus looked down at the sea far below.

His heart skipped beat.

All of the wax had melted.

His wings had fallen off.

Icarus began to panic.

He moved his arms, which were not bare.

Nothing happened, he was falling.

He wanted to cry out to his father, to call for help.

Too late.

The body hit the surface of the sea and was swallowed up

by its emerald waters, leaving only a few forlorn feathers

bobbing on the waves.

That sea now bears the name of Daedalus's unfortunate son.

It is called the Icarian Sea.

Daedalus had defied the laws of nature twice.

The first time in order to help Paciphae,

who'd given birth to a monstrous beast.

The second time, in order to escape, by turning men into

birds for which he paid with the life of his son.

(dramatic music)

One does not with impunity,

try to tamper with the laws of nature,

and the gods do not like it when mortals seek to go beyond

the limits of their human condition.

That is what old Daedalus came to understand

when crippled by grief, he landed on a small arid island

far from Crete, which he renamed Icaria,

in honor of his lost son.

(somber instrumental music)

For hundreds of years, sailors and travelers have,

as they crossed the Icarian Sea, wondered about Icarus

and his airborne quest.

Are we any different from Icarus?

From the child who lived in an open air prison

and dreamed of flying away to another place,

a place he imagined might be better?

Icarus may not have fallen because he had lost

all sense of moderation.

His father Daedalus was clever, but also cautious,

observant, and inventive, but also a man of reason.

Icarus, in spite of his father's explanations and warnings,

refused to listen to the voice of experience.

But as we all know,

experience is a light that only illuminates oneself.

(water splashing)

(dramatic music)