Don't Fly Like My Brother

I love the radio show Car Talk on NPR.  They are supposed to say before a commercial break, This is NPR."  But since they are constantly making fun of themselves (and anything else they can find to laugh at), they usually say it in a way that shows people can't stand the fact that such an awful show would be on NPR.  For example, the other week they said, "Even though Van Gogh lops off the other ear when he hears us say it, this is NPR."

They had a mythology one recently, "And even though Icarus heads back for the sun when he hears us say it, this is NPR."

I love mythology allusions!

Icarus Revised

I found this while stumbling along on the internet  It comes from a dinosaur comic page and it tells a more accurate view of the story of Icarus:

I can't make it big enough here, but you can read it clearly at: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1453

Being a Couch Potato Is Not as Bad as It Seems...

A Berlin student needed a couch to lounge about in. She didn't have a bunch of money, so went to the local thrift store. There, she makes a fantastic find...

This painting was hidden inside the sofa. The painting is called Preparation to Escape to Egypt." Who the artist is, no one knows. All the reports I could say the same thing - an "unknown artist close to Venetian painter Carlo Saraceni between 1605-1620."

The student paid $215 for the thing. She sold it for $27,630. That's a bargain.

Why do I have it here? While the "escape to Egypt" part of the title is very Biblical - several people, including Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus did that - it sure seems more of a painting of Daedalus and Icarus, which, as long time readers of Bubo's Blog know, I have a fond place in my heart for. I looked on the Internet for verification, but could not find anything other than what I mentioned above. But it has got to be this story. The bottom guy could be passed off as an angel, I guess, but it is obvious that his arms are strapped to the wings and it still doesn't explain the falling guy above him.

Stinks to be me. I just checked my couch and only found what my kids have stuffed in there. I don't reckon that the old yellow crayon I found is worth anything...

Two Things

One, check out The Pomegranate Blog for a poem about Icarus.  It is translated and written in its original language.

Two, I just learned something today and wanted to pass it on.  I know that you, I'm sure, have already known this for some time, but, well, it is new to me.  I've always thought Pandora had a box.  You know, Pandora's box - right?  Well, the Greek poet Hesiodus said she had a pithos, this is (so I'm told since I don't speak Greek, maybe Ailia can help me since she can) a jar for storing grain.  Everyone went along for years saying Pandora's jar until Erasmus published Adagia, in which he translated it as box.  Since he was so widely read at the time, 

the use of box became more common than jar.

I don't know what is worse, the fact that I, while never claiming to be a scholar, didn't know this or from the fact that I learned it from a children's book 

my son checked out of his school library.

Icarus

I've always been fascinated by Icarus and the following he has. There is an asteroid named after him, lots of artwork, a Cirque du Soliel act, even a song by Iron Maiden. Go to Google and you will find that Icarus has 1,850,000 entries while Hercules only has 1,770,000 entries. Hercules! Come on! The strongest hero ever! He even had a TV series and an Disney movie and he still can't get as many Google hits as Icarus.

Why the big deal? It is a short myth about the folly of not listening to your father. Me being a father, I think it is a great lesson to learn. I'm thinking about reading about Icarus's fall to my sons every night.

Despite that we get paintings like this one, The Lament of Icarus, by Herbert Draper. With the three maids caring for his body it's just like any death of King Arthur picture out there. Don't get me wrong. I really like this painting. It's a good use of brown colors and the wing are pretty cool, but the title! The Lament! The moral is not to hero-worship this guy.

I think it is because we admire his spirit. His refusal to be confined. His desire to take risks. After all, we do admire those who take chances and win. Those who go against the status quo. So I guess it is only right that we have a lament. He is a reminder of the pitfalls of being wrong.

This next one is a little hard to see in this reduced state, but is by far my favorite Icarus picture out there. It is called Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter the Elder Bruegal. I show this to my class every year and see what they think. At first they want to know why I'm showing it with an Icarus lesson. Then they start looking. It usually doesn't take too long for one of them to stop looking at the sky and look where he falls.

At this point they get confused as to why nobody in the painting has noticed this guy falling from the sky. That's the point. He went out for his own glory and his fall does not deserve to be noticed or honored. Nobody cares. This is why you listen to your father. After all, father knows best, right?

I'll end with this most unusual picture by Douglass Allchin called Homo Icarus: