In
Greek mythology,
Icarus (the Latin spelling, conventionally adopted in English; ,
Íkaros,
Etruscan:
Vikare) is the son of the master craftsman
Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Often depicted in art, Icarus and his father attempt to escape from
Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus's father warns him first of complacency and then of
hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun, whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea. This tragic theme of failure at the hands of
hubris contains similarities to that of
Phaëthon.
