DEDALUS, DIDALUS. Daedalus is the famous engineer of mythological times. He was an Athenian, but he fled to Crete after he killed Perdix, his nephew and apprentice (Met VIII.236-250). In Crete he made a dancing ground for Ariadne, a wooden cow for Pasiphae, and the Labyrinth for Minos. After Minos discovered that Daedalus had made the cow for Pasiphae, he threatened his life, but Daedalus made wings for himself and his son Icarus, with which they flew away from Crete (Met VIII.188-195; OM VIII.1579-1709).

Not even Dedalus "with his playes slye" can distract the Man in Black from his sorrow, BD 570; the "playes slye" are Dedalus's inventions. The story of the flight from Crete is told briefly, HF II.919-924. The whirling house of wicker, painted red, green, white, and pale yellow, resembles a bird cage and is more intricately made than the domus Dedaly, HF III.1920; domus Dedaly, or "house of Daedalus," preserves the Latin genitive singular and provides the rhyme. W.O. Sypherd says that the phrase echoes a note on a passage in Aquinas: "laborinthus dicebatur domus dedali," "the labyrinth is called the house of Daedalus." The description of the Labyrinth, "house of Didalus so entrelaced," Bo III, Prosa 12.156, is borrowed from Jean de Meun's translation: "maison Dedalus si entrelaciee," Li Livres de confort de philosophie. Boethius does not mention Daedalus. [Adriane: Minos: Phasipha: Ykarus]

Dedalus, which means "cunningly wrought," appears in medial position, BD 570, and in final rhyming position, HF II.919; Didalus, a spelling variant, appears in the prose translation of Boethius.