The Storyteller: Greek Myths (TV Series)

Daedalus & Icarus (1991)

Brian Henson: The Dog

Photos 

Quotes 

• The Storyteller : Daedalus, the master who designed this labyrinth. Whose mind produced these dizzy passages. Daedelus the genius, who invented ships which could sail under the sea, fireworks which would knock down a wall, lenses, that set together could see as far as the stars. Fantastic machines. He fell so far, he fell so far from grace he finished a broken man. Making the same little clay figure over and over: a child with wings.

  The Dog : A child with wings? Who was that?

  The Storyteller : The one thing Daedelus made he had no control of. The one thing he ever truly loved. Icarus, his son.

• The Storyteller : And people say Daedalus did use his brain. The maze he built to imprison the monster, the Minotaur, was designed like the brain itself. And a thousand years later, it still stands here.

  The Dog : So was Minos pleased?

  The Storyteller : Minos was cruel. Minos had two secrets: who the minotoar was and how to get out of the labyrinth. Now Daedelus knew both of them. When the monster was taken to its new prison, Deadelus and Icarus were locked in with it. Down there somewhere, in the heart of the labyrinth.

• The Dog : He died?

  The Storyteller : He died.

  The Dog : That's terrible. Why did he fly too high? He promised he wouldn't fly too high.

  The Storyteller : I think when Talos dropped from the sad heights above Athens, Icarus was already falling. As if a single thread held them all together. Talos fell, Icarus fell, Daedelus fell.

• The Storyteller : Daedalus, the greatest crafstman in Greece, there was no one like him. He was born in Athens.

  The Dog : Like us.

  The Storyteller : And he learned the art of making from the godess Athena herself. But his greatest dream was to fly, to sour through the clouds like a bird.

  The Dog : Is that why his son had wings? Did they both grow wings?

  The Storyteller : No, no, they didn't. Poor Icarus had nothing so graceful as wings. Even his hands were awkward and clumsy.