Icarus and curiosity Print

The myth of Icarus and Daedalus is one of the most beautiful in Greek mythology. It speaks to us, in an allegorical way, of the power of ingenuity, but also of the traps that ambition poses. Icarus managed to fly with wings made of feathers glued with wax, an invention of his father, but in his flight, escaping from Crete and King Minos got so close to the sun, due to the emotion of the flight, that the wax melted, spoiling his wings, he fell into the sea and drowned. Both Dedalo (the builder of the minotaur's labyrinth) and his son stand out for their ingenuity and scientific knowledge. It is not difficult, therefore, to establish a point of connection with Shelley's novel "Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus". Icarus flies towards Apollo, towards the sun, like the human who tries to get closer to God, but not as a servile being, but as a creator, as a scientist and therefore is punished. In the same way, the biblical myth of Lucifer (bearer of light, from the Latin lux (light) and ferre (to carry)) finds in its desire to be something more a fatal destiny. The angel who rebels against God, the first apostate or fallen, repeats the concept that is offered in the episode of original sin with the tree of knowledge. The acquisition and transmission of knowledge is an affront against God. Personally I think that the myth, always treated very negatively, is about the innate curiosity of the human passionate about knowledge, the attraction for the unknown and the amount of failure that is necessary to achieve true knowledge. And above all of the need of the human being to rise up, despite the danger of the fall.