The Fall of Icarus: Smiling In Defiance Of Fate

Centuries old a Myth of Icarus, a doomed flight filled with ideology that will touch the heart on levels reaching ambition to hubris displaying a theme holding reflection upon humans that it bares. One such myth is Icarus, the son of lead craftsman Daedalus who was confined to Crete. Daedalus saw to it, however, that he and his son might escape; so he carefully prepared two pairs of wings made from feathers over bones--which are the framework for a bird's wing–and secured them with thread agglutinated [melted] by wax. Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too near the sun, as heat would melt wax. For Icarus, in the ecstasy of flight he reached for his fathers call to go higher and flew so high that it rose up around him until there was nothing left but sea.

While the myth has undergone many different kinds of interpretations, one of the aspects which has rarely been discussed is the fact that Icarus was smiling while descending. In some other renditions, this aspect denotes that Icarus did taste a moment of ecstatique liberty, even facing his doomed end. This idea represents Icarus not just as a victim of hubris, but also as an icon of resistance and the wish for transcendence, whatever the cost.

Icarus' Smile: The Encounter of Ecstasy and Mortality

The image of Icarus smiling as he falls is a complex mix of triumph and tragedy. Rather than a cautionary tale about the dangers of overambition, the myth might be understood as a question about human aspirations toward transcendence, despite the reality of self-destruction. In that sense, Icarus' smile becomes a poignant icon of life's transient moments of freedom and elation, however insurmountable the fall that follows.

In the most famous account of the myth, Ovid's Metamorphoses, the text never mentions a smiling Icarus; yet the action of his fall is still steeped in this sense of wonder and thrill that his flight would have produced. "He began to delight in his daring flight and deserted his guide, drawn by a desire for the open sky" are the words describing Icarus as he ascended through the sky. This instance of defiance, motivated by a yearning for more than what was permitted, illustrates the universal human tendency to aspire towards the unattainable, even when such aspirations entail significant consequences.

Adding that he smiled all the way down gives the story an added dimension-a story of personal triumph, if fleeting. It changes Icarus's fall from a mere disaster into one of release from his physical and social bonds, deliberately choosing to live in the moment, full well knowing it would cost him his life.

The flight of Icarus has remained with us through the ages because he represents an archetypal fantasy about the human condition-that we could rise above our limitations, push beyond the boundaries of possibility, and become something greater. Icarus' smile, even as he fell, raises the story from cautionary tale to a symbol of rebellion and the fleeting nature of freedom. His tragic and triumphant flight is a metaphor that continues to reverberate in people's minds as a burning reminder that the pursuit of the impossible, even at great personal cost, gives life its meaning.

However, the failure of Icarus does only testify to the ambition versus humility and the freedom versus consequence contrast that let us entertain if, alike Icarus, we can smile in the face of our own limitations.