It was long believed that the gods had lost favor and trust in the men of Earth. By that time, a great many altars and temples had given way to famine and war in the numerous provinces of the Roman awakening. Nearby in the land of Crete, Daedalus, the famed genius, and his beloved son Icarus planned their great escape from the tyrannical rule of King Minos. For many years and still in vast areas, the tale is told of Icarus’ disobedience to the cause as he gave way to his own selfish course and decided to soar high into the heavens. For that misdeed, it is said he was punished as the wax on the well-fashioned wings melted, causing the feathers on his wings to abandon him and his ignorance in midflight.

However, there is another tale of the account, one much more extraordinary. You see, the morning of the duo’s planned escape from the island by way of the coast, it just so happened that, in wake of the discovery of the father and son from the compound, King Minos had sent forth a great number of men to scour the island. It was at this time, that the gods sent two powerful beings to the king’s presence to discuss the escape plan that Daedalus had already decided upon. With no time to lose, the two harpy sisters went before the king and proclaimed the findings as the gods had decreed them. At first the king did not think it responsible to believe the wild story, but after careful consideration, he agreed that the two would need to be stopped. His original plan had involved killing the two with the Minotaur, but the harpies warned him that the ability of flight would be required to destroy them in the act of escape. It was with this grain of advice that brought the king to request that these two messengers seek out and destroy Daedalus’s son, for surely no father would be able to stop himself from aiding his own son in distress. At the time that Daedalus should try to save Icarus, the harpy sisters would knock him into the depths to join the boy. However, the king was quite perceptive and distrusted many, so in order to prove their success, King Minos requested that the two beings retrieve the hands of Daedalus so that he would be unable to craft his own inventions in the afterlife. However, he allowed that if Daedalus did not return to save his son, the head of Icarus would be ample evidence of the victory.

Daedalus and his son leapt from the height of the precipice and steadied themselves on their carefully crafted wings. His father urged him to stay close by should they be otherwise become separated by updrafts or wind currents hazardous just off the coast. Overcome with excitement, the boy used the wind at his back to lift him high above the clouds and away from his father’s reach. As Icarus neared the warmth of the sun, he was taken by surprise when the pair of demon birds ambushed him riding upon Xephyrus’s southern gales. Through the intense glare of the morning star, he managed to make out two of the most beautiful women his eyes had ever seen. In an instant, they darted from his line of sight, moving at great speed as though showing off their superior aerodynamics. One calling herself Aello, the storm swift, struck from underneath him, her talons tearing a massive across his belly and launching the helpless boy higher and into the mighty and waiting talons of Celaeno, the dark, who thrashed a tremendous gash deep into his back, breaking his right wing from its secured place on his shoulder. This single misjudgment proved his downfall when he could not stabilize himself this time or beg for his father’s aid. No, instead the majestic beings plucked him from the skies and thrust the boy into the raging sea as it thundered against the rocks below.

Daedalus, though deeply wounded at the sight of his drowning son, stayed the course (a true hero, indeed!) and escaped the clutches of the wicked king, who had done so much evil, along with his servants. A fatally injured Icarus struggled to regain flight, but as the salt of the sea attacked the severe wounds on his back, the boy could not remain afloat and was submerged in the enduring tides that claimed his life. At that final moment, he heard the shrill songs of the harpies above growing steadily dim, slowly silenced by the gentle rhythm of Neptune’s sea. The sisters waited several moments before blasting together into the depths of the ocean and retrieving the boy’s head for the king. Legend died away with Icarus and gave way to the tale of science and the melting of wax. An invincible Heracles destroyed Aello, most sinister of all the harpy sisters; on the other hand, Celaeno the dark was never captured. The sisters were never blamed or discovered for their horrific misdeeds against the escaping Icarus, nor were they ever recorded as doing anything of the sort anywhere in history. They killed an unsuspecting boy in cold blood before ascending back into the heavens. In cooperation with a misled Juno, Aello was later revived and returned to her place in the sky. And there the two murderers wait, hovering high above the mystic isle of Phenodeles to this day.