‘Icarus’
To learn about Icarus, we must start with his father Daedalus. Brewer’s: "Mythical Athenian Craftsman. His jealousy of his nephew, Perdix of Talos, who was said to have invented the saw, caused him to throw Perdix from Athene’s temple on the Acropolis. Having thus committed murder, he fled to Crete. Here he arranged the liaison between Pasiphae (wife of King Minos of Crete - ed) and the Cretean Bull which created the Minotaur. Then, to conceal what had transpired, he built the famous labyrinth to hide the Minotaur. When Minos discovered the truth, he imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth.

"Pasiphae released them and Daedalus invented wings which, when attached to their shoulders with wax, enabled him and his son to fly. However, Icarus flew to close to the sun, (not the moon then? - slightly sarcastic ed) and he fell to his doom in the Icarian Sea. Daedalus reached Cumea and then went to Sicily."

The Brewer’s entry goes on to say that with the King of Sicily’s help, he kills Minos and becomes renowned for building beautiful buildings and that his name is synonymous with ingenuity and skill. Now, this is where it gets really fun (and anally retentive) because some traditions have it that Daedalus got as far as England where he settled and became a weapon-smith of great repute. Now, his name is changed to the Scandanavian 'Voland'. In Britain, this character is better known as Wayland Smith. If you read Beowulf, you will discover that a master weapon-smith makes a special sword which Beowulf uses to kill both Grendel and his mother, and, if you accept this notion, that was Daedalus!