ENGINEER, ARCHITECT

Life
Son of Metion and Alcippe, Daedalus is considered to be the father of aviation. He spent many years in Crete as architect and engineer to King Minos, for whom he built the famous labyrinth; but when Minos cast him and his son, Icarus, into prison for revealing the secret of the labyrinth to Theseus, he built a pair of flying machines and the two of them escaped. After the death of his son (who fell into what has since been called the Icarian Sea), he flew on to Athens, and then made his way to Camiros, in Sicily, where he served as "technical advisor" to King Cocalus.


Work
Daedalus was a skilled artist, architect, sculptor and inventor. His works include:

a) The Palace of Knossos

b) The Labyrinth in the Palace of Knossos

c) The mechanical giant Talos. The first robot in the history of mankind was a mechanical construction built by Daedalus (with the help of Hephaestus, according to the legend) to protect Crete. This bronze giant is said to have had a single vein which ran from his head to his heel, where a bronze nail served as a stopper. Talos was "killed" when, upon their landing in Crete, one of the Argonauts shot this nail out, allowing the divine ichor in his vein to drain away.

d) Flying machine. The famous flying machine that allowed Daedalus to escape from Crete may well have been a pedal-driven glider. In 1988, in an experiment devised by MIT, Greek cyclist Kanellos Kanellopoulos covered the distance between Crete and Santorini in 3 hours and 54 minutes in just such an apparatus.

e) "Moving statues" (a kind of robot) operated by mercury that guarded the entry to the Labyrinth.

f) "Artificial cow", built for Minos' wife Pasiphae.

g) Wedge, axe and spirit level.

h) Mechanical wooden dolls, for the children of King Minos.

i) Thermal baths at Selinus, on the south coast of Sicily

j) Aqueduct at Camicos, Sicily (near Agrigento)

k) Temple of Apollo, at Cumae (Italy)

l) "Piscina", at Hybla (Sicily): a vast reservoir - 1295 metres around and 9.24 metres deep - that collected rainwater, river water and spring water and drained into the sea. It combined the functions of swimming pool, fish pond and irrigation tank.

m) Wall and fortifications at Camicos (Sicily). Model of engineering design, with the access to the ramparts so narrow that it could easily be held by three or four men.

n) Retaining wall, near the Temple of Aphrodite, Camicos (Sicily).