Icarus's mother is given a single mention in the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus. Her name was Naucrate, she was a slave under Minos, and Daedalus had met her after he fled from Athens to Crete.
I'd like to think that she knew Daedalus and her son would leave someday. That Daedalus was one of those thundercloud men, too full of fury and mythic power to stay in one place for long, and that a half-Athenian like her Icarus would be safer in Sicily than on Crete.
I'd like to think that she got to see them before they were shut away in the labyrinth. That she got to say goodbye to her son, and that she saw a gleam in Daedalus's eye that meant he was thinking of some terribly clever means of escape.
I'd like to think that she looks out over the sea some days and wonders if her boy made it to the shore.
I'd like to think she doesn't know.





















