It is the place, in the myth, into which Icarus made his fatal fall from the sky when he flew too close to the sun during his flight from Crete with his father Daedalus. It is either directly from this legend that it gets its name, or from the island of Icaria. According to legend, it was Helios the sun god who named the sea 'Icarian' after the fallen hero.[1]
Classical references
Horace makes a reference to Icarian waves in Liber I, Carmen I, line 15 ("Ad Maecenatem");[2] the first stanza of his Ode 4.2 also alludes to the Icarian Sea.[3]
Strabo states that it connects with the Carpathian Sea on the south, and on the West with the Cretan Sea.
The second epic simile of the Iliad of Homer relates the Greek force to great waves on the Icarian sea.
Herodotus mentions Icarian Sea in The Histories VI:95 in reference to Persian troop movements.
References
^Mastronarde, Donald J. (2017). Preliminary Studies On the Scholia to Euripides (PDF). Berkeley, California: California Classical Studies. p. 150. ISBN 9781939926104.
^Horatii Carmen 1.1
^Horace's Ode 4.2: Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari, Iulle, ceratis ope Daedalea nititur pennis vitreo daturus nomina ponto. [Whoever is eager to rival Pindar, Iullus, is flying with wings waxed with Daedalus' aid, about to give his name to a glassy sea.]
External links
"Strabo's Geography: LacusCurtius, Book X Chapter 5". uchicago.edu. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
