Icarus and Daedalus
According to the greek mythology, the Ikarian Sea, located in the middle of the east side of the Aegean Sea and including the islands Samos, Patmos, Leros, Kos, has been named after a young boy called Ikaros, who was the son of Daedalus, the famous architect of the Minoan Palace and the Minotaur's Labyrinth. The King Mino had imprisoned Daedalus and Ikarus in the Labyrinth in order to punish Daedalus for having offering his help Pasiphae (Minos's wife) and Ariadne (Minos's daughter) contrary to the King's will.
Minos had ordered that they would never manage to escape either through the land or the sea. Vessels and roads were strictly controlled in order to prevent Daedalus from leaving his prison. However, Daedalus was inventive enough to find another way to escape and it was through the air! Thanks to his being a very skilful person, he created two pairs of wings for him and his son. He used feathers in order to make the wings and he kept them together with wax. Once having completed his wings, Daedalus taught his son to fly and advised him to avoid flying close to the sea because the wings would be wet due to the humidity and it would destroy them. Moreover, he also told Ikarus not to fly high because the hot sun rays would melt the wax of his wings. Continuously, they performed the first flight recorded in human history, that had taken place two thousand years before the Wrights flight!
Rising on his wings, Daedalus flew off, encouraging his son to follow him. Every now and then he used to look back in order to be sure that Ikarus was safe but the boy did it very well and enjoyed his flight. They directed to the north and flew over Delos and Mykonos islands. It was then that Deadalus stopped being so much worrying about his son thus checking him less often, and Ikarus, excited by his magic wings, started flying higher and higher. Unfortunately, the wax did not resist the heat so it melted and the feathers were decomposed so the boy fell in the sea helpless.
When Daedalus looked for his son, he realized that his wings were destroyed and the boy had fallen in the sea. Unable to do nothing but crying while looking at his son, he went to Sicily where he buried his son and erected a temple devoted to the god Apollo. He hung up his wings in the temple as an offering to the god.
The Sea area where Ikarus fell was named as Ikarian since then.
