Lesson 25 Reading: Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus and Icarus

For use after Lesson 25.

Sight Words to Know

of, from, to, into

have, live, give

the

there, said, you

they, their

when, what

was, his

knew

would, could

people

other, after

became, away, only

two

Sight or Common Words Child Should Be Becoming Familiar With

read (past), ready, great

about

under, never

king

castle, listen

many, anyone

friend

whole

enough

Words above Instructional Level (From Context, Parent)

Point out what a child knows about the word; briefly explain rules he doesn’t know yet.

invent, escape, window, began, freedom, apart, higher, tower

frightening, frightful, creature, father, feather, water

city, behind

work, find, son, tall, fall

thing, wing

telling

            You have read about the maze under King Minos’s castle, and the frightening beast that lived there, and how Theseus killed it and saved the city. But you have not read about how it got there.

            When the Minotaur was born, King Minos knew it would grow into a frightful creature. Still, he could not have it killed. A man named Daedalus worked for King Minos. He invented things. So Minos asked Daedalus to make a great cage for the Minotaur, so that it could never escape and hurt the people of Crete.

            So Daedalus made the huge maze under Minos’s castle, with so many paths the beast could not find its way out. But Minos could not let anyone find out what was under the castle. So he locked up Daedalus and his son Icarus in a tall tower to keep them from telling other people.

            Day after day Daedalus planned their escape. He spoke to the birds that sat on their high window and chirped. They became friends, and some of the birds let Daedalus take feathers from their wings. The birds told their friends, and whole herds of birds came to give Daedalus a feather or two. Soon Daedalus had enough, and he began work.

            Daedalus used hot wax to make the feathers stick to each other. He made four huge bird wings from them: two for him and two for Icarus. When the wax was hard, the father and son put on their wings and got ready to fly away to freedom.

            “Icarus,” said Daedalus, “you must not fly too high. If you get too close to the sun, the wax on your wings will melt. Then they will fall apart and you will land in the sea.”

            But Icarus did not listen. He flew up and up, higher than the birds and into the clouds. It was only as the skin of his arms and legs began to burn that he stopped, and then it was too late. His wings slid into the water, with Icarus close behind.