Icarus

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Icarus was a river of Scythian nations mentioned by Pliny.

Variants

• Icarian Sea (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 409.)
• Icărus Isle (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 409.)
• Icarus (Pliny.vi.19)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Ikodiya = Icarus (Pliny.vi.19)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Ikodiya = Icarian Sea/Icărus Isle (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 409.)

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions The nations of Scythia and the countries on the Eastern Ocean..... Indeed upon no subject that I know of are there greater discrepancies among writers, from the circumstance, I suppose, of these nations being so extremely numerous, and of such migratory habits. Alexander the Great has left it stated that the water of this sea¹⁰ is fresh, and M. Varro informs us, that some of it, of a similar character, was brought to Pompey, when holding the chief command in the Mithridatic war in its vicinity; the salt,¹¹ no doubt, being overpowered by the volume of water discharged by the rivers which flow into it. He adds also, that under the direction of Pompey, it was ascertained that it is seven days' journey from India to the river Icarus,¹² in the country of the Bactri, which discharges itself into the Oxus, and that the merchandize of India being conveyed from it¹³ through the Caspian Sea into the Cyrus, may be brought by land to Phasis in Pontus, in five days at most.

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10 Of the Caspian Sea.

11 Said on the supposition that it is a bay or gulf of the Scythian or Septentrional Ocean.

12 Ansart suggests that this is the modern Rocsha.

13 From the Oxus.

In Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Icarus (/ˈɪkərəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἴκαρος, romanized: Íkaros, pronounced [ǐːkaros]) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos suspected that Icarus and Daedalus had revealed the labyrinth's secrets and imprisoned them—either in a large tower overlooking the ocean or the labyrinth itself, depending upon the account. Icarus and Daedalus escaped using wings Daedalus constructed from feathers, threads from blankets, clothes, and beeswax. Daedalus warned Icarus first of complacency and then of hubris, instructing him to fly neither too low nor too high, lest the sea's dampness clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored Daedalus’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun, causing the beeswax in his wings to melt. Icarus fell from the sky, plunged into the sea, and drowned. The myth gave rise to the idiom, "fly too close to the sun."

In some versions of the tale, Daedalus and Icarus escape by ship.

Ch.20 Description of Arabia — Voyage of Nearchus

Arrian writes....The common report is, that he heard that the Arabs venerated only two gods, Uranus and Dionysus^[1]; the former because he is visible and contains in himself the heavenly luminaries, especially the sun, from which emanates the greatest and most evident benefit to all things human; and the latter on account of the fame he acquired by his expedition into India. Therefore he thought himself quite worthy to be considered by the Arabs as a third god, since he had performed deeds by no means inferior to those of Dionysus. If then he could conquer the Arabs, he intended to grant them the privilege of conducting their government according to their own customs, as he had already done to the Indians. The fertility of the land was a secret inducement to him to invade it; because he heard that the people obtained cassia from the lakes, and myrrh and frankincense from the trees; that cinnamon was cut from the shrubs, and that the meadows produce spikenard without any cultivation.^[2] As to the size of the country, he was informed that the seaboard of Arabia was not less in extent than that of India; that near it lie many islands; that in all parts of the country there were harbours sufficiently commodious to provide anchorage for his fleet, and that it supplied sites for founding cities, which would become flourishing. He was also informed that there were two islands in the sea facing the mouth of the Euphrates, the first of which was not far from the place where the waters of that river are discharged into the sea, being about 120 stades^[3] distant from the shore and the river's mouth. This is the smaller of the two, and was densely covered with every kind of timber. In it was also a temple of Artemis, around which the inhabitants themselves spent their lives. The island was devoted to the use of wild goats and stags, which were allowed to range at large as being dedicated to Artemis. It was unlawful to chase them unless any one wished to offer sacrifice to the goddess; and for this purpose alone it was lawful to chase them. Aristobulus says that Alexander ordered this island to be called Icarus, after the island so named in the Aegean Sea,^[4] on which, as the report goes, Icarus, son of Daedalus fell, when the wax, by which the wings had been fastened to him, melted. For he did not fly near the earth, according to his father's injunctions, but senselessly flying far aloft, he allowed the sun to soften and loosen the wax. Icarus left his name to the island and the sea, the former being called Icarus and the latter the Icarian. The other island was said to be distant from, the mouth of the Euphrates about a day and night's voyage for a ship running before the breeze. Its name was Tylus^[5]; it was large and most of it neither rugged nor woody, but suitable for producing cultivated fruits and all things in due season. Some of this information was imparted to Alexander by Archias, who was sent with a triacontor to investigate the course of the coasting voyage to Arabia, and who went as far as the island of Tylus, but durst not pass beyond that point. Androsthenes^[6] was despatched with another triacontor and sailed to a part of the peninsula of Arabia. Hieron of Soli the pilot also received a triacontor from Alexander and advanced farthest of those whom he despatched to this region; for he had received instructions to sail round the whole Arabian peninsula as far as the Arabian Gulf near Egypt over against Heroopolis.^[7] Although he coasted along the country of the Arabs to a great distance he durst not go as far as he was ordered; but returning to Alexander he reported that the size of the peninsula was marvellous, being only a little smaller than the country of the Indians, and its extremity projected far into the Great Sea.^[8] Nearchus indeed in his voyage from India had seen this stretching out a little, before he turned aside into the Persian Gulf, and he was almost induced to cross over to it. The pilot Onesicritus thought they ought to have gone thither; but Nearchus says that he himself prevented it, so that after sailing right round the Persian Gulf he might be able to give a report to Alexander that he had accomplished the voyage on which he had sent him. For Nearchus said he had not been despatched to navigate the Great Sea, but to explore the land bordering on the sea, to find out what men inhabit it, to discover the harbours and rivers in it, to ascertain the customs of the people, and to see if any of the country was fertile and if any was sterile. This was the reason why Alexander's naval expedition returned in safety; for if it had sailed beyond the deserts of Arabia, it would not have returned in safety. This is said also to have been the reason why Hieron turned back.^[9]

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1. Cf. Herodotus, iii. 8.

2. Cf. Herodotus, ii. 40, 86; iii. 110-112; Strabo, xvi. 4; Pliny (Nat. Hist. xii.).

3. About 17 miles.

4. One of the Sporades, west of Samos, now called Nitaria. Cf. Horace (Carm., iv. 2, 2) and Ovid (Fasti, iv. 28).

5. Called Tyrus by Strabo (xvi. 3). It is now called Bahrein, and is celebrated for pearl fisheries.

6. A fragment of the work of Androsthenes descriptive of his voyage is preserved by Athenaeus (iii. p. 936).

7. Probably Ramses. Its ruins are at Abu-Kesheb.

8. Probably the projection now called Ras-al-Had.

9. Cf. Arrian (Indica, 82).

p.408-410