Daedalus, one of the most popular Greek myth

What has the architect Daedalus to do with Erice? 

He was likely the architect who built the wall surrounding the temple of Aphrodite in Erice in order to strengthen it . The wall still stands today. They are the big blocks on top of the very edge of the cliff rising into the sky. A work so hard that only Daedalus could have done.

There are mythical as well as archaeological links between the Minoan and others cultures of the Mediterranean  Bronze Age and Erice.

Seafaring traders of Crete would likely know Erice. One of their settlements, a little further down the coast,  at Herakleia Minoa, testifies the presence of this population on the island.

The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus

The legend tells that Daedalus, in his flight from Crete, came to Sicily and also founded a city in these lands. According to the Greek historian Temaeus the daughters of Sican king Cocalo welcomed him.

Daedalus was a great architect. He had a workshop in Athens and many students. Among them, there was Talos, his sister’s son, a man of great craftsmanship as well. Talos probably invented the saw, not Daedalus. He also invented the compass and Daedalus was afraid that his student would become greater than him. So he killed Talos, throwing him from the Acropolis.

Talos’ mother hanged herself when found out what happened.  Athenians decided to punish Daedalus, who fled to Crete and asked the Great King Minos to stay in his court. King Minos was happy to have Daedalus there, and ordered him to build the Palace of Knossos.

Daedalus  created the plan for the Minoan Palace of Knossos, one of the most important archaeological sites in Crete and Greece today. It was a magnificent architectural  building decorated with stunning frescoes and artifacts.

The birth of Minotaur

But the great architect quickly became embroiled in another messy situation.

In Crete there was the custom of sacrificing the most beautiful bull to the god Poseidon. But when Minos saw the beauty of the bull decided to spare him and replaced it with another one. Poseidon became angry about this and in revenge he made Pasiphae, Minosse’s wife, to fall in love with the beautiful bull .

She physically desired the bull. So Daedalus, to help her, built  a wooden cow in which she could hide and mate with the bull. She thereby became pregnant and bore the Minotaur, a creature with a human body and a bull’s head. Minos  requested Daedalus to build a Labyrinth, from which the Minotaur could not escape. The monster was kept alive with constant human sacrifice.

According to the myth, Minos also used the labyrinth to imprison his enemies,  sure that the monster would eat them. The Athenians were required to sacrifice 7 young men and 7 maidens to the Minotaur every 7 or 9 years. One year, the sacrificial party included Theseus, the son of King Aegeus, who volunteered to kill the Minotaur.

But he feared he would remain imprisoned in the labyrinth. Meanwhile, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus. Then Daedalus suggested her to give Theseus a ball of thread that he would have to unroll to find the way out of the labyrinth, after killing the Minotaur.

Minos was infuriated when found out about the betrayal and imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth.

What about Theseus and Ariadne love story?

According to a version of the mith  the two fled together by sea. But when the ship of Theseus stopped at the island of Naxos on the way back home to Crete, he abandoned Ariadne there. She was then seen by the god of wine Dionysus, who married her.

The flight of Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus made wings of wax and feathers. He and Icarus used the wings to fly to Sicily and to freedom.

The father taught Icarus how to fly, but told him to keep away from the sun because the heat would make the wax melt, destroying the wings. But Icarus was too young and too excited about flying. He flew too high and too close to the sun. The wings melted and he fell down to his death. Daedalus instead landed in Sicily.

Daedalus in Sicily

After the death of his son, Daedalus  flew to Sicily, where he built a Temple dedicated to Apollo. He gave the God the wings that helped him to escape from Crete.

In Sicily he met Cocalus (Kokalos), King of the Sicans and lived among the Sicanians. The Governor of Sicily ordered Daedalus to build the aqueduct of the city called Camicus.

Camicum was also the name of the old Sican district of Akragas, the ancient city of Agrigento founded by Greeks around 582 BC on the slopes of what has been called Mount Camicos.

The death of Minos

In the meantime King Minos of Crete went in pursuit of the architect. He knew that Daedalus would not reveal himself, therefore he decided to trick him.

Having found Daedalus, Minos ordered the Governor to give him Daedalus.

The Governor accepted, asking Minos to have a bath in his courthouse. But he ordered his daughters to murder Minos in order to keep Daedalus safe in Sicily.The daughters drenched Minos with boiling water scalding him to death.

The Sicans burnt the ships of the Cretans and these, forced to stay in Sicily, settled in the town of Heraclea Minoa or maybe founded the town.

Myth or truth?

All of the above may be no more than a myth, but it conceals the historical truth that the Minoan Cretans founded colonies in Sicily, such as Minoa in Acragas (Agrigentum), Hyria in Messapia and Engyos in the interior of the island.

The historical existence of Kokalos has never been proven.

Sicanians may have been mixed with the colonizing Greeks by the time the mythological architect would have landed in Sicily.

Works by Daedalus in Sicily

So, under the protection of King Cocalus, the architect remained in Sicily. Major works are attributed to him there.

To thank King Cocalus, Daedalus built a tower to store the king’s treasures.

Another work of Daedalus is the acropolis of Camicus. And an artificial lake near the city of Megara in Sicily, which was connected to the sea by a river.

At Selinus,  there was a cave which was very hot inside. Daedalus took advantage of this natural heat to heat the water of a spring, building hot baths.

The Greek historian Posidonius  told us that the famous architect  visited even the temple of Venus Ericina. He saw that the cliff was so high that the buildings of the temple of Erice threatened to fall over the precipice. He undertook the strengthening and building of a surrounding wall still standing today. They are the big blocks on top of the very edge of the cliff rising into the sky.

Source: Wikipedia