Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Too Close to the Sun - Icarus, Daedalus and Persephone

Icarus' father, Daedalus, a talented craftsman, attempted to escape from his exile in Crete, where he and his son were imprisoned at the hands of King Minos, the king for whom he had built the Labyrinth. Daedalus, the master craftsman, was exiled because he gave Minos' Daughter, Ariadne, a clew of string in order to help Theseus survive the Labyrinth.
Daedalus fashioned a pair of wax wings for himself and his son. Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted his wings. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos.

In Greek mythology, Persephone (Kore or Cora) was the embodiment of the Earth's fertility at the same time that she was the Queen of the Underworld, the korÄ“ (or young maiden), and the parthenogenic daughter of Demeter—and, in later Classical myths, a daughter of Demeter and Zeus. In the Olympian version she also becomes the consort of Hades when he becomes the deity that governs the underworld.
The figure of Persephone is well-known today. Her story has great emotional power: an innocent maiden, a mother's grief over her abduction, and subsequent joy after the return of her daughter. It is also cited frequently as a paradigm of myths that explain natural processes, with the descent and return of the goddess bringing about the change of seasons.

By a strange coincidence, we have been to three restaurants in the past year whose names are derived from Greek mythology: Daedalus (near Harvard Square) for a brunch, Persephone's for Ciel's birthday, and last night (more restaurant week), Icarus.

After a lovely meal, we trekked to South Boston to begin Jaime's big move - to her new apartment near Davis Square.

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