Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the Athenian who devised the Labyrinth of Crete that housed the Minotaur.
[Tangent: Many tellers of the tale say Daedalus left Athens after murdering his assistant Perdix in a jealous rage. Perdix had invented the saw, so Daedelus threw him from a rock. As Perdix fell he turned into a partridge, and the bird still bears the name perdix.]
King Minos of Crete, who had commissioned the Labyrinth, was unwilling to let Daedalus leave, so Daedalus made wings for himself and his son Icarus.
Ovid's Metamorphoses contains the story:
When Daedalus the craftsman had finished making [the wings] he balanced his body between the twin wings and by moving them hung suspened in the air. He also gave instructions to his son, saying: "Icarus, I advise you to take a middle course. If you fly too low, the sea will soak the wings; if you fly too high, the sun's heat will burn them. Fly between sea and sun! ... Take the course along which I shall lead you."
As he gave the instructions for flying, he fitted the novel wings to Icarus' shoulders. While he worked and gave his advice the old man's face was wet with tears, and his hand's trembled with a father's anxiety. For the last time, he kissed his son and rose into the air upon his wings. He led the way in flight and was anxious for his companion, like a bird that leads its young from the nest into the air. He encourage Icarus to follow him and showed him the skills that were to destroy him; he moved his wings and looked back at those of his son. Some fishermen with trembling rod, or shepherd leaning on his crook, or farmer resting on his plow saw them and was amazed, and believed that those who could travel through the air were gods. Now Juno's Samos was on the left (they had already passed Delos and Paros), and Lebinthos and Calymne, rich in honey, were on the right, when the boy began to exult in his flight. He left his guide and, drawn by a desire to reach the heavens, took his course too high. The burning heat of the nearby sun softened the scented wax that fastened the wings. The wax melted; Icarus moved his arms, now uncovered, and without the wings to drive him on, vainly beat the air. Even as he called upon his father's name the sea received him and from him took its name.
(Source: M.P.O. Morford and R.J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology (3rd edition), Longman, 1985, pp.425-426.)
[It is worth noting that this book has a list of rock songs inspired by classical myths. This list includes "Jason and the Argonauts" by a band called English Settlement (emphasis added). Harumph.]
The Icarus myth, while a relatively insignificant tale in the whole realm of Greek mythology, has taken inspired artists of all ilks for centuries. Here's Peter Paul Rubens's The Fall of Icarus.
