At last the famous island of Crete was reached, and there Daedalus landed and made himself known the King of Crete, who had already heard of his extraordinary skill, welcomed him to his kingdom and gave him a home in his palace, promising that he should be rewarded with great riches and honor if he would but stay and practice his craft there as he had done in Athens. Day after day the little ship sailed slowly southward, keeping the shore of the mainland always upon the right. There was a ship in the harbor just ready to start on a voyage across the sea, and in it Daedalus embarked with all his precious tools and his young son Icarus. At first, they were for punishing Daedalus with the death which he so richly deserved, but when they remembered what he had done to make their homes nicer and their lives easier, they allowed him to live and yet they expelled him from Athens. “If he keeps on in this way,” he whispered to himself, “he will be a greater man than me his name will be remembered, and mine will be forgotten.”Īs for Daedalus, when the people of Athens heard of his appalling deed, they were filled with grief and rage-grief for young Perdix, whom all had learned to love, and rage towards the immoral uncle, who loved only himself. Then he invented the wheel which potters use to shape clay, and he made of a forked stick the first pair of compasses for drawing circles, and he studied out many other intriguing and useful things.ĭaedalus was not pleased when he saw that the boy was so skilled and wise, so ready to learn, and so eager to do anything. Seeing how a certain bird carved holes in the trunks of trees, he learned how to make and use the chisel. Walking one day by the sea, he picked up the spine of a large fish, and from it he invented the saw. His eyes were ever open to see what was going on about him, and he learned everything about the fields and the woods. But Perdix was a very quick learner and soon surpassed his uncle in the knowledge of many things. He built a stone palace for Aegeus, the young king of Athens, and renovated the Temple of Athena which stood on the great rocky hill in the middle of the city.ĭaedalus had a nephew named Perdix whom he had taken as a boy to be his apprentice. He invented many things that helped many people. He was the first to attach things together with glue. It was he who taught the people how to build better houses and how to hang their doors on hinges and how to support the roofs with pillars. While Athens was still only a small city there lived within its walls a man named Daedalus who was the most skillful worker in wood and stone and metal that had ever been known. \)Īdapted from Old Greek Stories by James Baldwin, $\ccpd$
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