Few myths are told as often as the fall of Icarus. A boy flies on wings of feathers and wax, goes too close to the sun and drops into the sea. It is usually told as a warning, but it has also become one of the great images of ambition and freedom. This guide explains the story, what Icarus has come to symbolize, how artists have read him, and how the Icarus Ring carries the myth.
The myth of Icarus
Daedalus was the great craftsman of Greek myth, the builder of the labyrinth on Crete. King Minos kept him and his son Icarus on the island. To escape, Daedalus made two pairs of wings from feathers held together with thread and wax. The best-known version is the one Ovid tells in the Metamorphoses. Before they take off, Daedalus warns his son to fly the middle course: not too low, where the sea spray would weigh down the feathers, and not too high, where the sun would melt the wax. Icarus, carried away by the joy of flight, climbs toward the sun. The wax softens, the feathers come loose, and he falls into the sea that still bears his name, the Icarian Sea.
What does Icarus symbolize?
Ambition and the courage to rise
For many people today Icarus is above all the one who dared. He did what no human had done and went higher than he was told. In this reading the fall does not cancel the flight, because the climb itself is the point.
Hubris and its limits
The older reading is a warning against hubris, the pride that ignores human limits. Icarus does not listen to his father, forgets the rules of his own wings and pays for it. The myth is often quoted when ambition loses touch with reality.
Freedom
The wings were made to escape a prison. Before it is a story about falling, it is a story about getting out. Icarus stands for the wish to leave behind whatever holds us in place.
The middle way
Daedalus's warning works in both directions. Too high is dangerous, but so is too low. Some modern writers stress this half of the advice and see in Icarus a reminder that playing it too safe has a cost too.
Father and son
The myth is also about a father who gives his son the means to fly and cannot stop him from using them. Ovid lingers on Daedalus calling his son's name over the water. For some readers that loss is the heart of the story.
Icarus in art
Icarus has been painted, sculpted and written about for two thousand years. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, long attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, shows a ploughman, a shepherd and a ship going about their day while two small legs disappear into the sea, a picture about how the world often does not notice. W. H. Auden built his poem Musée des Beaux Arts (1938) around that painting. Henri Matisse cut out a black Icarus with a red heart for his book Jazz (1947). Each version chooses a different moment: the flight, the fall or the indifference that follows.
The Icarus Ring
The Icarus Ring keeps its attention on the climb rather than the fall. A serene face rises between descending wings that rest over the finger, so that the stillness of the face and the movement of the wings hold each other in tension. It is cast in solid 925 sterling silver, not plated, and finished by hand. Icarus is one of the figures in our Greek mythology jewelry collection; for the other myths behind it, see our guide to Greek mythology jewelry.
Questions
What does Icarus symbolize?
Ambition, freedom and the courage to rise, but also hubris and the danger of ignoring limits. Which side matters depends on the reader.
What is the moral of the Icarus myth?
The classic moral is to fly the middle course, neither too high nor too low. Many modern readers also see it as praise for daring.
Who wrote the story of Icarus?
The myth is older, but the best-known telling is in Ovid's Metamorphoses, written in the early first century AD.
Is the Icarus Ring unisex?
Yes. The design is unisex.
Is it solid silver?
Yes. It is solid 925 sterling silver, not plated.
How long does an order take?
Each ring is made to order: 1–2 weeks of production, then 3–5 business days of shipping within the USA, with free U.S. shipping.
