Ancient Skies

NARRATOR

For the ancient Greeks, the world was a place they shared with supernatural beings. Where a god could turn a mortal favorite into a constellation of stars......and the sun was driven across the sky each day in a fiery chariot. It was clearly the custom to explain the movements of the stars and planets through stories about gods and goddesses.

NARRATOR

These divine beings populate the great epic poems of early ancient Greece. Like other ancient people, the Greeks didn't regard the heavens as existing in some other dimension. Their stories tell of a shared world in which gods and mortals live alongside each other. Yet only the gods could freely plunge into the depths of the ocean......or make their home on the highest mountain. To humans, the heavens were out of bounds. Any mortal trying to reach the skies was in danger of incurring divine anger......and certain downfall. And perhaps no Greek myth is a better example of this idea than the story of a man called Daedalus and his son, Icarus.

WOMAN

Daedalus flew ahead, like a bird. He urged the boy to follow, and showed him the dangerous art of flying. The boy began to delight in his daring flight, and, drawn by desire for the heavens, soared higher. His nearness to the sun softened the wax that held the wings, and the wax melted. He flailed with bare arms, but could not ride the air. Even as his mouth cried his father's name, it vanished into the dark blue sea.