Choosing Heaven: The Fate of Icarus
The beauty of hope over tragedy
The myth of Icarus is one of the heavy hitters of Greek mythology. A story about a boy who created wax and feathered wings, was warned by his father not to fly too high— did anyway and his mistake was fatal. It warns of excessive pride, ignoring wisdom and disrespecting limits placed on us by others. The highlights of this tragedy have become ubiquitous with the sin of youth. If you revisit the ancient texts, you learn that Icarus and his inventor father, Daedalus, were imprisoned by King Minos, step-father to the Minotaur, and the wings were their escape plan. Daedalus encouraged Icarus before he took the leap to fly. However, he also warned Icarus the wings could melt if he flew too high, or ruin in the water if he flew too low.
“Let me warn you, Icarus, to take the middle way, in case the moisture weighs down your wings, if you fly too low, or if you go too high, the sun scorches them. Travel between the extremes…take the course I show you!”
Ovid, VIII.183-235
The flight was a desperate attempt for freedom and Icarus’s mistake cost him his life, and earned him infamy. I like to imagine Icarus with Hades in the afterlife, his life reduced to a cautionary tale, screaming up “It was my first time flying! I made a mistake!”
The mistake of… hope? At what point does hope become hubris? Is it only when you fail?
Thousands of years later, footage of a little Angler fish fleeing it’s home in the “midnight zone” and swimming miles to the ocean surface has captured our collective attention online. This ugly-as-sin, once mythical sea monster ascending to the heavens- beams of sunlight streak her grotesque face- has become a universal symbol of hope. I had tears in my eyes when I first saw the video. Why did this little freak mean so much to me? She has posthumously been named Icarus: the one who went too close to the sun and died in the sea.
We have no idea why Icarus found herself where she did. Scientists speculate she was fleeing a predator or she had an illness. The consensus is she was escaping what was comfortable. I can’t help but to think of the bright light drawing her up, the same way it has been canonized in human death. Go towards the white light. It may be the end, but there is comfort in the surrender.
The Anglerfish That Swam To God
It’s the urge to go towards the light
when all you have known is darkness
After her death
they named her Icarus
Myth for myth—
The boy who flew too close to the sun
The fish that died in a rainbow
Yearning for the adventure in the escape
Is it hubris or hope
in the choice of the devil
and the deep blue sea
to choose heaven?
When planning their escape from Crete, Icarus and Daedalus understood the risks inherent. Acquiescing to the unknown, the two brave the idea that the chance for freedom outweighs the possibility of harm or death. Our Anglerfish may not have made the same conscious choice, but did so instinctually. I think this is why her story has resonated with us so much: the beauty of hope over tragedy. There is a glimmer of longing in the rainbow of light shining above her. There could have been a happy ending for her, there wasn’t, but there could have been.
Is it hubris or hope in the choice of the devil and the deep blue sea* to choose heaven?
Love, Britta
* The mythology nerd in me would have loved to swap out “devil and the deep blue sea” for “between Scylla and Charybdis”, but in the story of Odysseus our hero survives, unlike the tale of the two Icaruses.
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