🎧 Emma's Library Audiobook cover: Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus and Icarus

Classical Stories · No. 11 — The boy who flew too close to the sun.

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About this audiobook

Daedalus, the genius who built the labyrinth, is imprisoned on Crete with his son Icarus by the king he once served. No ship can slip past Minos, no road leads off an island — so Daedalus looks up. He builds two pairs of wings from gathered feathers and wax, and gives his son one gift and one warning: fly the middle way. Not so low that the sea soaks the feathers; not so high that the sun melts the wax. The flight begins in terror, turns to joy — and joy is exactly the danger.

Why it's worth a listen

The most famous flight in mythology: wings built from feathers and candle wax by the greatest inventor who ever lived, locked in a tower of his own designing. It is thrilling, then heartbreaking — and it leaves behind one of the oldest questions families have ever shared: why is 'not too high' the hardest instruction in the world?

A question to keep

When someone you love gives you both a gift and a warning, why is the warning so hard to keep?

Based on the book by A tale from Ancient Greece, published by Emma's Library original retelling

Chapters

  1. The High Cage of Crete
  2. The Secret of the Gulls
  3. The Gift and the Warning
  4. The Kingdom of the Air
  5. The Melting of the Wax
  6. The Icarian Sea
  7. A Question to Keep