Daedalus was 100% Athenian. Amazing sculptor initially, he introduced new forms to the art such as the separation of the legs and the use of glazed eyes.
His work was so revolutionary that the elderly were greeting his statues at nights (like they did in 80s with anchormen on tv), thinking that they are real people. Gradually, he exhibited the rest of his virtues. Daedalus was a Greek Leonardo (Da Vinci not Di Caprio), with a plethora of inventions such as the drill, the ceramic wheel and the plummet for constructions.
Whatever he constructed was both useful and artistic. He couldn’t bare ugliness and sloppiness. He was meticulous and diligent, that is why he was charging alot. But as a typical bohemian bon-viveur, he was earning five and spending ten, thus he was broke all the time. This unpleasant situation forced him to start accepting student.
One of them was his nephew Kalos or Talos who showed skills equivalent to those of his uncle. He invented the pair of compasses, the lathe and above all the saw, mimicking the jaws/teeth of a fish. The latter, revolutionized the industrial production of ancient Attica giving alot of money to Talos and alot of nerves to Daedalus.
You see, he was a great inventor but a rather petty human being. Furious from his nephew’s success he murdered him but regadless his smartness he didn’t manage to commit the perfect crime. In order to escape from the concequences of his action, fled to Crete.
King Minos welcomed and appointed him as Chief of the Cretan Development Department and Daedalus transmitted all his know-how to the local craftsmen. As a result, Crete had indoor plumbing and heating floors when others were fighting against Homo-Erectus.
Some say that he and not Hephaestus created the copper giant-security Talos, to protect the island. Moreover its name was a small tribute to his nephew, in order to appease his guilts for the heinous crime. As years passed he became part of the society and even had a son with one of the palace slaves.
Originally he called him Naucrates. But since the boy was curious and always thinking of new ideas, became Icarus from the Greek verb Εικάζω, which means i guess or i speculate.
For another small part of Greek mythology, Lycaon.
