While the origin of many legends is questionable, that of others
is easy enough to trace, though not to prove. Among the
credulous the significance of the name of a people of Asia
Minor, the Capnobates, 'those who travel by smoke,' gave rise to
the assertion that Montgolfier was not first in the field--or
rather in the air--since surely this people must have been
responsible for the first hot-air balloons. Far less
questionable is the legend of Icarus, for here it is possible to
trace a foundation of fact in the story. Such a tribe as
Daedalus governed could have had hardly any knowledge of the
rudiments of science, and even their ruler, seeing how easy it
is for birds to sustain themselves in the air, might be excused
for believing that he, if he fashioned wings for himself, could
use them. In that belief, let it be assumed, Daedalus made his
wings; the boy, Icarus, learning that his father had determined
on an attempt at flight secured the wings and fastened them to
his own shoulders. A cliff seemed the likeliest place for a
'take-off,' and Icarus leaped from the cliff edge only to find
that the possession of wings was not enough to assure flight to
a human being. The sea that to this day bears his name
witnesses that he made the attempt and perished by it.

In this is assumed the bald story, from which might grow the
legend of a wise king who ruled a peaceful people--'judged,
sitting in the sun,' as Browning has it, and fashioned for
himself wings with which he flew over the sea and where he
would, until the prince, Icarus, desired to emulate him.
Icarus, fastening the wings to his shoulders with wax, was so
imprudent as to fly too near the sun, when the wax melted and he
fell, to lie mourned of water-nymphs on the shores of waters