DAEDALUS, a mythical Greek architect and sculptor, who was said to have built the labyrinth for Minos of Crete, to have made a wooden cow for Pasiphae and a bronze man who repelled the Argonauts. Falling under the displeasure of Minos, he fash ioned wings for himself and his son Icarus and escaped to Sicily. These legends seem primarily to belong to Crete, and the Athe nian element, which connected Daedalus with the royal house of Erechtheus, is a later fabrication. To Daedalus the Greeks of the historic age were in the habit of attributing buildings and statues the origin of which was lost in the past. In many cities of Greece there were rude wooden statues, said to be by him. Later critics ascribed to Daedalus such improvements as separating the legs of statues and opening their eyes. In fact, the name Daedalus is a mere symbol, standing for a particular phase of early Greek art, when wood was the chief material and other substances were let into it for variety. In a later verse in the Iliad he is mentioned as the maker of a dancing-place in Crete.
This Daedalus must not be confused with Daedalus of Sicyon, a great sculptor of the early part of the 4th century B.C., none of whose works is extant.