Icarus the Myth

Icarus the Myth

In Flat Broke in Paradise, Nick's grandfather won a 
sailboat by calling an opponent's bluff in a poker game. He renamed it Icarus, after the Greek tragic myth. The myth is a warning of hubris and complacency.

Jacob Peter Gowy's The Flight of Icarus.

Madrid, Museo del Prado

Icarus and his father Daedalus made wings of feather and wax to escape the clutches of King Minos of Crete. Daedalus did the test flight and found the wings airworthy. He warned his son not to fly too low near the sea where the dampness of the air would soak the feathers or too high where the sun would melt the wax. Icarus young and full of life got a bit too excited about the flight and soared too high and too near the sun. The wax on the wings melted and Icarus plummeted to sea and drowned. 

The Icarian Sea into which Icarus fell bares his name.