Daedalus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Daedalus

30 passages from 11 ancient authors that tell of Daedalus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Daedalus built the Labyrinth, then fled Crete with his son Icarus, who fell to his death. Read the full story, the escape, and his life in Sicily. For the story in one place, read our article on Daedalus.

Homer (1)

Homer, Iliad 18.541–617The Shield of Achilles (2): field, vineyard, herds and danceHephaestus also shows on the shield a ploughed field with ploughmen who receive cups of wine at the end of each furrow, a king's estate with reapers and binders, and a vineyard with grape-gatherers and a boy playing the lyre. Two lions attack a herd of cattle by the river, and there is a pasture of sheep and a dancing-floor like the one Daedalus made for Ariadne, with youths and maidens dancing. Round the rim he sets the great stream of Ocean, and when the shield is done he makes a corselet, a helmet and greaves and lays them before Thetis.

Apollodorus (3)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.1.1–24Theseus and the Minotaur; Daedalus, Phaedra and PirithousThe Epitome picks up Theseus' labours with the sow of Crommyon and goes on through Sciron, Cercyon and Damastes, after which he reaches Athens and Medea's plot against him fails. With Ariadne's clue he kills the Minotaur, and Ariadne is left on Naxos for Dionysus; Aegeus leaps to his death when he sees the black sail. The section then follows Daedalus and Icarus and Minos's death in Sicily, Theseus's Amazon wife and Phaedra's passion for Hippolytus, the Centauromachy, Helen's abduction, and Theseus's capture in Hades and death on Scyros.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.15.1–3.16.2Erechtheus, Aegeus, Minos's war on Athens and the birth of TheseusPandion's sons divide his inheritance and Erechtheus becomes king; his daughters include Procris, killed accidentally by Cephalus, and Orithyia, carried off by Boreas. The section covers Cleopatra and Phineus, Eumolpus and the war with Erechtheus, who sacrifices his daughter, and Aegeus and his marriages. Minos, to avenge Androgeus, takes Megara through Scylla's treachery and imposes the tribute of youths and maidens for the Minotaur. It ends with the birth of Theseus to Aethra and his first two labours, where the surviving text of the Library breaks off.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.1.1–4Europa, Minos and the birth of the MinotaurZeus takes the form of a bull and carries Europa from Phoenicia to Crete, where she bears Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthys, while her brothers Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix, with Telephassa and Thasus, settle in distant lands. The three sons quarrel over Miletus, and Minos marries Pasiphae and has his children. Minos wins the kingdom by praying for a bull from Poseidon and then sacrificing another; Poseidon makes the bull savage and makes Pasiphae fall in love with it, so that with Daedalus's wooden cow she bears the Minotaur, shut up in the Labyrinth.

Diodorus Siculus (2)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.76.1–4.80.6Daedalus, Minos in Sicily and the Mothers at EngyumDaedalus, an Athenian craftsman who invents the saw and the potter's wheel, flees to a deme of Attica after the death of his nephew, then to Crete, where he makes the contrivance for Pasiphae, and then escapes to Sicily; Icarus falls into the sea. Minos pursues him to Sicily and dies at the court of Cocalus. The section ends with the cult of the Mothers at Engyum and the great temple the townspeople built for them.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.28.1–4.30.6The Amazons' invasion of Attica and the colony in SardiniaThe surviving Amazons and the Scythians invade Attica to avenge Heracles' attack, and Theseus defeats them, Antiope dying in the battle. The god tells Heracles to send a colony to Sardinia led by his sons by the daughters of Thespius; Iolaüs leads it, calls the people Iolaeis, and builds great works with the help of Daedalus, and the settlers later retreat into the mountains.

Ovid (1)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.152–263The Minotaur; Daedalus and IcarusMinos returns to Crete and shuts the Minotaur, the monster born of Pasiphae's unnatural love, in a labyrinth built by Daedalus. The Athenians pay tribute of youths and maidens until Theseus kills the monster with the help of Ariadne's thread, and Ariadne is placed among the stars as a crown. Daedalus, long exiled in Crete, makes wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son Icarus, who flies too near the sun and falls into the sea. Daedalus' nephew Perdix, whom he threw from a tower out of jealousy, is changed into a partridge, and Daedalus is received by King Cocalus in Sicily.

Pausanias (11)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.4.1–10Samos and Chios: the Heraeum, Smilis and DaedalusPausanias recounts the Ionian settlement of Samos under Procles of Epidaurus, quoting Asius on the earlier line of Phoenix and Ancaeus, and the Ephesian attack under Androclus. He discusses the sanctuary of Hera, which the Samians say was founded where the goddess was born by the Imbrasus under a willow, and the old image by the Aeginetan Smilis. A digression on Daedalus, his flight from Athens to Minos and then to Cocalus in Sicily, follows. The section ends with the legendary history of Chios according to Ion, from Poseidon and Oenopion to King Hector.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.11.1–7Thebes: the house of Amphitryo, the sanctuary of Hercules and Apollo of the AshesPausanias describes the ruins of Amphitryo's house with Alcmena's bridal-chamber, the tomb of the children of Hercules and Megara, and the stone with which Athena stunned the maddened Hercules. He tells how Historis tricked the witches sent by Hera to delay Alcmena's labour. He describes the sanctuary of Hercules with its marble image, an old wooden image attributed to Daedalus, the story of Icarus' drowning, gables by Praxiteles showing the labours, and the offerings of Thrasybulus and the Athenian exiles. The altar of Apollo of the Ashes has divination by voices.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.40.1–12Lebadea and Chaeronea: the discovery of the oracle, the works of Daedalus and the sceptre of AgamemnonPausanias tells how the Boeotians found the oracle of Trophonius by following bees, and lists the surviving works of Daedalus. He moves to Chaeronea, once called Arne, and discusses the Roman trophies and why Macedonians set up none, the tomb of the Thebans who fell fighting Philip with its lion, and the sceptre of Agamemnon, which the Chaeroneans worship as a spear and which the priest keeps in his house for a year.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.21.1–7Athens: poets’ statues in the theatre, Niobe and the sanctuary of AsclepiusIn the theatre are statues of tragic and comic poets, with stories of Sophocles’ honours and Aeschylus’ vocation from Dionysus. Above it are the Gorgon’s head on the Acropolis wall and a cave with a tripod showing Niobe’s children being shot, which Pausanias compares with the rock Niobe on Mount Sipylus. He mentions the grave of Calos, the sanctuary of Asclepius, and a Sarmatian horse-hoof corselet, which leads to a digression on Sarmatian arms and linen corselets.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.26.1–7Athens Acropolis: Olympiodorus, the Erechtheum and the golden lampOlympiodorus leads the Athenians to retake the Museum hill from the Macedonians, with Leocritus first over the wall, and later helps recover Piraeus and Eleusis. Pausanias then describes the Leucophryenian Artemis and Endoeus’ seated Athena, and the Erechtheum with its altars of Zeus, Poseidon, Erechtheus, Butes and Hephaestus and a well of sea-water with the mark of the trident. He ends with the ancient image of Athena and Callimachus’ golden lamp.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.4.1–7Corinth: Athena the Bridler, the kings of Corinth and the road up to Acro-CorinthNear the tomb of Medea’s children is the sanctuary of Athena the Bridler, which leads Pausanias to Bellerophon and Pegasus and to the lineage of Corinth’s kings from Sisyphus to the Dorian Aletes, the Bacchids and the tyrant Cypselus. He describes the theatre, the Daedalic Hercules, the spring Lerna and the temples of Zeus and Asclepius, and the shrines of Isis, Serapis, the Mother of the Gods, the Fates, Demeter and Bunaean Hera on the way up to Acro-Corinth.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.15.1–5Cleonae and Nemea; Mycenae and the early Argive legends of Inachus and PhoroneusOn the road to Argos Pausanias describes Cleonae, with its Athena by Scyllis and Dipoenus and the tomb of Eurytus and Cteatus, and the Nemean region: the lion’s cave, the temple of Nemean Zeus, the grave of Opheltes and Mount Apesas. He then begins the Argive legends, covering Inachus, the dispute of Poseidon and Hera over the land, and Phoroneus, who first gathered mankind.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.3.1–16Olympia: victor statues and the statue of LysanderPausanias continues along the statues at Olympia with athletes from Sicyon, Elis, Lepreus, Aegira and Caulonia, naming the sculptors and their teachers. He discusses the date of the victor Oebotas and the Greek tradition that he fought at Plataea, which Pausanias reports without believing. The section ends with the statue of the Spartan Lysander dedicated by the Samians, with its two inscriptions, and a remark on how the Ionians flattered whoever held power.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.46.1–5Tegea: Augustus carries off the image of Athena AleaPausanias tells how the Emperor Augustus carried off the ancient image of Athena Alea and the tusks of the Calydonian boar after defeating Antony, whose allies included all the Arcadians but the Mantineans. He argues that this followed a long-established custom of taking images from the defeated, citing the image of Zeus of the Courtyard given to Sthenelus, the Daedalus image taken to Gela, Xerxes' removal of Artemis from Brauron and Apollo from Branchidae, and images held by Argos and Cyzicus. The image stands in the Forum of Augustus, and a boar's tusk is kept in the imperial gardens.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.3.1–9Plataea: the Daedala festival of HeraPausanias tells how Hera, angry with Zeus, returned only when Cithaeron advised Zeus to carry a wooden image in a cart and claim it was his new bride, Plataea. The festival of the Daedala commemorates the reconciliation. The Plataeans find the oak for the image by watching which tree a crow perches on after taking boiled flesh. The Little Daedala is held by Plataea alone and the Great Daedala jointly with the Boeotians, with fourteen images carried on wagons to the top of Mount Cithaeron, where they are burned on a great wooden altar with cattle sacrificed to Hera and Zeus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.17.1–13Sardinia: its peoples, settlement, mountains and the sardonic herbPausanias describes the bronze statue of Sardus sent to Delphi and gives an account of Sardinia, its size and early names, and the peoples who settled it: Libyans under Sardus, Greeks under Aristaeus and Iolaus, Iberians, Trojans, Corsicans and Carthaginians. He describes the mountains, the unhealthy air, the absence of snakes and wolves, the swift rams and the poisonous plant that kills with laughter, the 'sardonic' laughter of Homer.

Hyginus (1)

Hyginus, Fabulae 37–48Theseus, Minos and the Athenian kingsTheseus is born, travels to Athens and kills the bandits, then goes to Crete where Daedalus, Pasiphae, the Minotaur and Ariadne figure. The group closes with Philomela and Procne, Erechtheus' daughters, Phaedra and Hippolytus, and a list of Athenian kings.

Palaephatus (2)

Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 9–14Lynceus, Caeneus, Cycnus, Daedalus and Icarus, Atalanta, CallistoShort tales in which a miner, two “invulnerable” warriors, a pair of escaped prisoners in a fast boat, two lovers eaten by lions, and a girl killed by a bear become the stuff of myth through a misunderstood saying. Each ends with the formula that people “said” something and the myth grew from it.
Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 15–21Europa, the Horse, Aeolus, Hesperides, Hundred-Handers, Scylla, Daedalus’ StatuesSeven more rationalisations. They run from Europa carried off by a man named Taurus to the Wooden Horse as a siege device, Aeolus the astronomer, the Hesperides’ golden sheep, a city named Hundred-Hands, the trireme Scylla, and Daedalus’ walking statues. The sources of the myths are almost always a pun or an ambiguous name.

Plato (4)

Plato, Euthyphro 10a–11eIs the holy loved by the gods because it is holy?Socrates asks whether the holy is loved by the gods because it is holy, or is holy because it is loved. With the examples of carried and carrying, seen and seeing, he shows that what is loved is loved because the gods love it, whereas the holy is loved because it is holy. The holy and what is dear to the gods are therefore different, and Euthyphro has told a quality of holiness, not its nature. Euthyphro says that his statements keep going round, and Socrates compares them to the statues of Daedalus.
Plato, Euthyphro 14a–16aWhat the gods gain from our gifts; Euthyphro leavesEuthyphro answers that holiness is knowing how to say and do what pleases the gods in prayer and sacrifice, which preserves families and cities. Socrates reduces this to a kind of trading between gods and men, and Euthyphro says the gods gain only honour, praise and gratitude. That brings the argument back to the claim that holiness is what is dear to the gods, and Socrates asks to begin again. Euthyphro says he is in a hurry and leaves, and Socrates is left without the knowledge that he hoped would help him against Meletus.
Plato, Republic 527a–531eBook VII: Geometry, solids, astronomy and harmonicsSocrates says that geometry is also a study of what is always, not of becoming, though its practitioners speak as if it were for use, as to square, apply and add, and it draws the soul toward truth and forms the philosophic mind. The study of solids, which has not yet been properly pursued, comes next, and then astronomy, which Glaucon praises for seasons and navigation, but Socrates says it must turn the soul's eyes upward to what is above not by looking at the sky but by understanding. The stars in the sky are the most beautiful of visible things, but they are only patterns, like diagrams made by Daedalus, and the true motions, of real speed and real slowness, are grasped by reason and not by sight. Harmony is the sister of astronomy, as the Pythagoreans say, but they err in measuring heard sounds against each other rather than asking which numbers are concordant.
Plato, Laws 676a–680eBook III: The origin of government: the floods and the survivors on the hillsThe Athenian proposes to discover the origin of government by watching how states move towards goodness or badness, and asks whether there is truth in the old tales that mankind has often been almost destroyed by floods, plagues and other disasters, so that only a few survived. He supposes that the survivors were herdsmen on the mountain tops, and that the arts, and the cities, laws and arts of every kind, were lost with the lowland, so that discoveries said to date from a thousand years before, such as those of Daedalus, Orpheus, Palamedes, Marsyas and Olympus and Amphion, were really made after the destruction. The survivors, in their desolate state, were friendly, had no need to quarrel for food and no gold or silver, and were simple and just because they did not know evil. He asks what need of laws these men had and who their lawgiver was.

Plutarch (1)

Plutarch, Life of Theseus 19.1–21.2Theseus and the Minotaur; the stories of Ariadne; the Crane dance on DelosMost writers say that Ariadne gave Theseus the thread, with which he found his way through the Labyrinth, killed the Minotaur and sailed off with Ariadne and the youths. Philochorus has him defeat Taurus in the funeral games of Minos, and Cleidemus has him sail against Minos' son Deucalion with Daedalus as guide. The accounts of Ariadne disagree: she hangs herself, or is taken to Naxos, or dies in childbirth on Cyprus, or there were two Ariadnes, one of whom married Dionysus. On Delos Theseus dances with his youths a dance that imitates the passages of the Labyrinth, called the Crane.

Strabo (3)

Strabo, Geography 6.3.1–3Tarentum and its founding by PhalanthusStrabo opens Iapygia and describes Tarentum, its harbour, gymnasium, and the colossus of Zeus (Jupiter), and the Heracles (Hercules) of Lysippus now in the Capitol. He gives two accounts of the founding: Antiochus tells of the Partheniae and the oracle given to Phalanthus, and Ephorus of the Messenian war and the Lacedaemonian women. In the account of Antiochus the Cretans said to have sailed with Minos, and Iapyx son of Daedalus, are named among the earlier inhabitants.
Strabo, Geography 10.4.6–10Crete: peoples, Cnossus and MinosStrabo lists the peoples of Crete named by Homer, the Eteocretans, Cydonians and Dorians, with the temple of the Dictaean Zeus (Jupiter) at Prasus. He describes Cnossus, the palace of Minos, and tells of Minos as lawgiver who went up to the cave of Zeus every ninth year, as against tragic tales of the Minotaur, the Labyrinth, Theseus and Daedalus. He also tells of his own family link with Cnossus through Dorylaüs.
Strabo, Geography 14.1.14–19Samos and Icaria: Polycrates and IcarusStrabo describes Samos with its Heraeum full of paintings and statues by Myron, and recounts the tyrant Polycrates and his ring found in a fish. Pythagoras leaves the island, Creophylus is said to have hosted Homer, and Athens besieges the island under Pericles. Icaria is named from Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who fell there when the wax of his wings melted.

Virgil (1)

Virgil, Aeneid 6.1–155Cumae and the SibylThe Trojans land at Cumae, and Aeneas climbs to the temple of Apollo and the cave of the Sibyl. After he studies the carvings on the temple doors, the possessed Sibyl prophesies war in Latium and a hostile marriage dispute. Aeneas asks to enter the Underworld to see Anchises, and she replies that the descent is easy but the return is hard. She tells him to find a golden bough and bury a dead comrade.