Daedalus
Daedalus
2. The most realistic part of the poem are the emotions that are shown. There isnt anything realistic in this poem that makes any of it rational except for the emotions portrayed. We see that Daedalus cares for his son, but makes thoughtless decisions such as the one to fly to freedom. Also we see he has remorse for the loss of his son yet he is able to kill his very own nephew, Perdix, with no problem. When he kills Perdix we see a sense of jealousy and selfishness arise from Daedalus. We begin to see him as an evil man, and when you think back to the beginning you realize that he had been in exile to begin with, so he must have done something terrible to deserve it.
3. There are several instances in which Ovid lets us know that there is going to be a tragedy regarding Icarus later on in the poem. Our first encounter is in line 15 “Not knowing he was dealing with his downfall” which is letting us know that Icarus stood by his father as he engineered the wings that would eventually lead to Icarus death. In the lines 23-32 there are many warnings towards Icarus about flying, his father explains to him that he must keep in the middle and not to fly to high or too low, the repetitiveness of his fathers warnings can lead the reader to believe something bad will happen up ahead. In line 32 it states “he kissed his son (good-bye, if he had known it) which kills the suspense because we now realize that Icarus will die during failed attempt to fly. In line 37 the narrator uses the phrase “O-fatal art!” as the father guides his son in flight. As they are flying we picture the fisherman and shepherd below them, In lines 39-43 it is explained that the fishermans rod is trembling over the water which can be foreshadowing to fall of Icarus into waves. Then in line 48 the boy is overpowered by the joy of flying that he soon begins to get curious and in line 50 he begins to fly off to the vast heaven. Lines 51-60 we are built up into suspense as Icarus draws nearer to the sun to where the wax on his wings eventually melts and he is left calling to his father as he falls to his death. These reminders occur because Ovid wants to make sure we stay aware and guessing what will happen to Icarus.
4. The story of Perdix was put after the burial of Icarus because it is a flashback on to what the meaning of the partridge is. I believe that Perdix was killed before Icarus, and that there