Now some fisherman spies them, angling for fish with his flexible rod, or a shepherd, leaning upon his crook, or a ploughman, on his plough-handles — spies them and stands stupefied, and believes them to be gods that they could fly through the air.
And now Juno’s sacred Samos had been passed on the left, and Delos and Paros;* Lebinthus was on the right and Calymne, rich in honey, when the boy began to rejoice in his bold flight and, deserting his leader led by a desire for the open sky, directed his course to a greater height. The scorching rays of the nearer sun softened the fragrant wax which held his wings. The wax melted; his arms were bare as he beat them up and down, but, lacking wings, they took no hold on the air. His lips, calling to the last upon his father’s name, were drowned in the dark blue sea, which took its name from him. But the unhappy father, now no longer father, called: “Icarus, Icarus, where are you? In what place shall I seek you? Icarus,” he called again; and then he spied the wings floating on the deep, and cursed his skill.
* Flying northeast from Crete towards Icaria, where Icarus came to grief, the two bird-men would pass Paros and Naxos on the left first, with Lebinthus (Levitha) and Calymne (Kalymnos) on the right; then Delos on the left, and finally Icaria, with Samos just beyond it. It would seem that they were turning east under Samos and almost at the coast of Asia Minor when Icarus soared up jubilantly into the air.