Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Reception of the Icarus Myth in the Mass Art of the Late 

20

th

-21

st

 Century

 

 

183

the characters of this myth, Daedalus and Icarus, always together, the father 

and the son (Apollod. II. 6.3; Apollod. Epit. I. 12-13). But answers are not 

needed, because further exploration of the lyrics distinctively shows the 

song’s ideological use of the Icarus image has nothing in common with the 

ancient prototype: “He was flying over the mountains illumined by the sun 

/ Looking down on the land,” “But he forgot everything,” and as a result, 

“The pair of light wings, / Here, in grey dust”

22

 crumbled away. It is not 

important to the author of the text that in the ancient myth the sun 

punishes Icarus, not the Earth. In these lyrics, it is stated that the “sinful 

earth” would not let the man go. This is, perhaps, some kind of metaphor 

for the creative impulse, which can lift the spirit up, only later to drag it 

down, to smash it to death. 

The lyrical character of the song Icarus by the group “Polite Refusal” 

(1990, text by Gor Ogannisyan) also touches upon this state of bliss. In this 

text we can see many names from ancient myths associated with air - 

Uranus, Eos, Ether and Zephyros. Here, the story of Icarus is associated 

with a lyrical character who makes wings of feathers, wax and filaments and 

so “opens the door to the sixth ocean” as his ancestors’ memory calls him 

into the sky. 

The consonance in the part of the text in which Icarus is named has a 

particularly ominous sound. At first there is no sense of ill omen: “Oh, I’ll 

fly like Icarus, / Oh, I’ll fly like Icarus, / Oh, I’ll fly like Icarus ...” And then 

suddenly, the collapse and breakdown comes. “Oh, I’ll fly like Icarus carus-

carus-carus / carus-carus-carus-carus-carus.”

23

 What other words are 

necessary to illustrate vicissitudes of human fate than the name of one who 

had just been flying or was dreaming of flying, metamorphosed into the 

sinister guttural cries of crows? 

Against the background of these associations, the composition Icarus - 

Son of Daedalus by the group “Legion” (album Myths of Antiquity, 2007) 

strikes the listener with its simplicity, ease and its somewhat edifying nature. 

Here the group offers almost an exact recount of the legend: Daedalus 

made the wings, his son helped him, and his father warned: “You are a 

crown / Do not touch the sun! / The heat of holy fire / will punish you,” 

but impressed by the spaciousness of the sky, Icarus forgot this rule and 

thus was doomed: “he fell down from heaven / and disappeared into the 

depths...” The romantic version of the Icarus myth - formed in modern 

culture as a result of indirect contact with the original source and received 

instead through mediated interpretation and a series of re-presentations - 

continues to attract the attention of artists and the public. This kind of 

                                                 

22

 http://www.rockruss.ru/018_a.html, accessed 18 December 2013. 

23

 http://www.rockruss.ru/018_vezhlivyjjotkaz.html, accessed 18 December 2013. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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E. A. Chiglintsev 

 

184

indirect, “second-hand” reception of antiquity is quite normal in the 

contemporary information society. It is evident that the majority of 

recipients do not think about the real sources of their perceptions of 

antiquity. But in the case of Icarus - Son of Dedalus, the author’s position of 

offering one more interpretation - his message to next generation - is an 

integral part of the composition: everyone knows how fragile the boundary 

between good and evil is, nevertheless we should “Overstep / And win / 

Many dreams.” But the doom of characters who chose their own way is 

shown both in the text of the chorus and in the last lines of the verse: a new 

hero always dies, thus each individual always faces the problem of choosing 

their own way: “Choose, choose, choose ...”

24

 

As can be seen from the material studied in this paper, the symbolic 

character of Icarus acquires the features of an image in the works of Russian 

rock poetry of 20

th

-21

st

 centuries. The symbol is always a particular 

manifestation of the image, and the image is much broader than the 

symbol.

25

 In turn, the image of this ancient character forms in the mass 

consciousness an image of antiquity, an image that is understood and 

accepted by contemporary people. 

 

 

Reception of the Icarus Myth in the Mass Art of the Late 

20

th

-

21

st

 Century 

  

(Abstract)

 

 

This article was prepared within the context of a larger research project on the analysis of 

public demand for the reception of the historical past and the study of creative practices 

through exploring how past social and cultural realities are understood in the modern 

world. The main object of the research is to show modern Russian sociocultural reality as a 

construct embodying the synthesis of social needs in accessing the historical past through 

representations of historical phenomena and the images of historical personalities. Through 

this approach, the reception of the past can be seen as a way of updating, interpreting and 

representing historical experience in contemporary Russian society.  

One of the most popular periods in the history of mankind is the period of 

antiquity, a fascination with which began in the Middle Ages and has not diminished up to 

the present day amongst societies with European cultural roots. The goal of this article is to 

present the dialectics of symbol, sign and image through the example of the representation 

of the mythical character Icarus, as an example of the reception of ancient mythological 

characters generally in modern culture. Beyond the ancient myth itself, the narratives of 

ballets about Icarus created in the 20

th

 century and the rock poetry of Russian bands in the 

1980s, 90s and 2000s are used as source material in this research. The study concludes that 

due to the artistic conventions of ballet language, the evolution of the Icarus image runs 

from the symbol to the sign: the interpretation of the symbol neither extends nor deepens 

its ”ancient” content. In Russian rock poetry of the late 20

th

-early 21

st

 centuries, however, 

                                                 

24

 http://www.rockruss.ru/072legion.html, accessed 18 December 2013. 

25

 Rubtsov 1991, p. 39. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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