Icarus

views updated May 21 2018

Icarus In Greek mythology, the son of Daedalus, architect of the labyrinth for Minos of Crete. Daedalus made wings of feathers and wax in order to escape to the mainland, and was successful. Icarus, however, flew too near the Sun, which melted his wings, and he fell into the sea and drowned.

Icarus

views updated Jun 08 2018

Icarus in Greek mythology, the son of Daedalus, who escaped from Crete using wings made by his father but was killed when he flew too near the sun and the wax attaching his wings melted so that he fell into the sea, and was drowned. Icarus is used allusively to denote someone who is over-ambitious in their aspirations.

Icarus

views updated May 08 2018

Icarus A solar system asteroid (No. 1566), diameter 1.4 km; approximate mass 1012 kg; rotational period 2.273 hours; orbital period 1.12 years. Its highly eccentric orbit crosses the orbit of Earth.