The Meaning of Icarus’ Wings | What Are Icarus’ Wings?
What Are Icarus’ Wings?
The story of Icarus’ wings is one of the most well-known episodes in Greek mythology. The summary goes as follows:
King Minos of Crete imprisons his son, the Minotaur, in the Labyrinth and sends a young man named Theseus as a sacrifice. However, Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, falls in love with Theseus and, with the help of Daedalus and Icarus, learns how to navigate the maze. Ariadne passes this information to Theseus, and the two escape the labyrinth and flee the island. When Minos discovers that Daedalus and Icarus aided in their escape, he imprisons the father and son in the labyrinth.
However, Daedalus fashions wings out of bird feathers and wax, allowing them to escape by flight. Daedalus warns Icarus not to fly too close to the sea, as the moisture would dampen the wings, or too close to the sun, as the heat would melt the wax. But Icarus, exhilarated by the ability to fly, ignores the warning and flies too close to the sun. The wings disintegrate, and he falls into the sea, dying.
This story serves as a cautionary tale against hubris, much like the story of the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament. In Chapter 1114, Vegapunk discusses the Mother Flame, which seems to symbolize Icarus’ wings in this context. The idea of humanity’s downfall through its own creations suggests that the future of a world submerged in water, as predicted by Vegapunk, could be caused by the Mother Flame—akin to Icarus’ wings. Alternatively, the advanced civilization of the Great Kingdom that existed 900 years ago might represent Icarus, with Joy Boy as Icarus himself.
There are multiple interpretations, but I believe that the use of Icarus’ wings rather than the Tower of Babel as a metaphor points to the core influence of Greek/Roman mythology on One Piece. If that’s the case, then perhaps the “Land of the Gods” that existed before Mariejois was…
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