Icarus is depicted here soaring into the sky, full of hope and joy. It is a symbol of freedom. Icarus and his father Daedalus have learnt to fly and are escaping their captor King Minos of Crete.

Icarus loves flying so much that he forgets Daedalus’s warning and flies too close to the heat of the sun so that the wax holding the wings onto his body melt away and he falls to the sea.