thenceforth Icarian. Between what we have assumed to be the
base of fact, and the legend which has been invested with such
poetic grace in Greek story, there is no more than a century or
so of re-telling might give to any event among a people so
simple and yet so given to imagery.

We may set aside as pure fable the stories of the winged horse
of Perseus, and the flights of Hermes as messenger of the gods.
With them may be placed the story of Empedocles, who failed to
take Etna seriously enough, and found himself caught by an
eruption while within the crater, so that, flying to safety in
some hurry, he left behind but one sandal to attest that he had
sought refuge in space--in all probability, if he escaped at
all, he flew, but not in the sense that the aeronaut understands
it. But, bearing in mind the many men who tried to fly in
historic times, the legend of Icarus and Daedalus, in spite of
the impossible form in which it is presented, may rank with the
story of the Saracen of Constantinople, or with that of Simon
the Magician. A simple folk would naturally idealise the man
and magnify his exploit, as they magnified the deeds of some
strong man to make the legends of Hercules, and there,
full-grown from a mere legend, is the first record of a pioneer
of flying. Such a theory is not nearly so fantastic as that
which makes the Capnobates, on the strength of their name, the
inventors of hot-air balloons. However it may be, both in story
and in picture, Icarus and his less conspicuous father have
inspired the Caucasian mind, and the world is the richer for
them.

Of the unsupported myths--unsupported, that is, by even a shadow