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Comparing Ovid's The Myth Of Daedalus And Icarus

Decent Essays

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus has been approached by many different artists with many differing depictions of the event. Some artists such as Ovid, chose to focus on Daedalus and Icarus and leave everyone else out. Other artists, for instance, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and W. H. Auden, have much more panoramic views of the situation and include others in their works. Different approaches can leave the readers with different understandings of this ancient myth.

In Ovid’s “The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus,” the author uses a third person point of view to closely follow Daedalus and Icarus. From this, readers are more tightly attached to the characters and know more about them. Readers of this story witness the inventing and engineering of the wings by Daedalus and know the conflicting desires of Daedalus to escape from prison and to protect his son. One thing that is emphasized in this story is the overwhelming sorrow of Daedalus, both before due to fear of Icarus’ falling, and after due to the loss of his son. Ovid includes …show more content…

H. Auden, refers to the painting mentioned previously. Auden does not focus primarily on the fall of Icarus, much like the painting, but chooses to concentrate more on artists and their depictions of suffering. Auden says, “the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure.” The author is essentially verbalizing the painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.” Much like Icarus isn’t a huge part of the painting, he is also given very little mention in this poem. The underlying theme of this poem is that suffering is surrounded by the busyness of everyday life. Even this poem is a perfect example of the overshadowing of suffering by other things, itself overshadowing the tragic demise of Icarus with other mundane events. This also places Icarus’ story in the hands of an outsider, leading readers to become less attached to Icarus and

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