Daedalus
Daedalus is the Athenian craftsman, son of Metion, who killed his nephew Perdix - the boy who had invented the saw - and fled to Crete, where he built the labyrinth, the dancing-floor that Homer names at Knossos (Iliad 18.590-592), and the wooden cow for Pasiphae.
Craftsman and craft-ancestor, not a deity: there is no cult of Daedalus, no temple, no festival and no priesthood, and the entry does not inflate him. What exists is a craft tradition carrying his name - the daidalon, a cunningly worked image, and the 'Daedalic' style of early Greek sculpture - and the Athenian claim to him as the ancestor of their craftsmen. The Plataean Daedala of Hera (Pausanias 9.3) takes its name from the wooden images, daidala, and not from the man, which is exactly the kind of confusion the name invites; the entry does not treat that festival as his cult. The planetary, elemental, zodiacal, tarot and sabbat values here are modern Western overlays with no ancient basis, and the tradition's own account is primary.
Correspondences
- Planetary Correspondence
- Mercury
Offerings
- Offerings
- A thing made wellBronzeWineHoneyA tool kept sharp
Sacred timing
- Sacred Timing
- Moon phasesHoursDawnMercury hours
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- DaidalosThe CraftsmanDaedalus of Athens
- Gender Expression
- Masculine
- Titles
- The CraftsmanMaster of the LabyrinthAncestor of the MakersMaker of the Wings
- Symbols
- The sawThe axeThe wingsThe labyrinthThe plumb line
Practice
- Invocation Approach
- TonePractical exactingAddressDaedalusThe CraftsmanMaster of the LabyrinthRelationshipThe hand that solves the problem it was hired forWarningHis solutions are also traps and his son died of his giftResonanceMakers engineers and those who build their own way out
- Modern Practice
Daedalus is the working figure for craft, for the solution that works, and for the solution that becomes the trap. The practice is the made thing itself: build it, test it, and take responsibility for what it does when someone else uses it. He is called on by makers and not by worshippers, and the offering is the work rather than the prayer.
Nature and meaning
- Domain
- CraftMakingThe labyrinthFlightThe workshopIngenuityThe made thing
- Mythology Summary
Daedalus is the Athenian craftsman, son of Metion, who killed his nephew Perdix - the boy who had invented the saw - and fled to Crete, where he built the labyrinth, the dancing-floor that Homer names at Knossos (Iliad 18.590-592), and the wooden cow for Pasiphae. He made wings of feathers and wax for himself and Icarus, and Icarus flew too near the sun (Ovid, Metamorphoses VIII.183-235; Apollodorus, Epitome 1). Pausanias, who counts two surviving works of Daedalus in Boeotia and is sceptical about the rest, is the ancient reader who takes the attributions with a grain of salt (9.40.3-4).
- Related Deities
- AthenaHephaestusHermesApollo
Details
- Correspondences
- ColorsBrownGreyGoldWhiteScentsCedarPine resinSandalwood whiteMetalsBronzeIronGoldAnimalsFalconHawkPartridge
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