The Myth Of Daedalus And Icarus

Ultimately, coming to the realization that a same sex attraction was not compatible with the life I was living in Oxford, Mississippi, I knew I had to leave and find my way to a better quality of life. The events that were about to unfold would take me on a journey that would change me forever. The myth of Daedalus and Icarus has significance in my background when I was a young gay man attending The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss. Just like the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, my experience was full of ups and downs. There are similarities in the myth that remind me of the torment I suffered for years growing up in the Deep South. My coming out and leaving Mississippi to move to Los Angeles have remarkable parallels to the myth …show more content…
Ovid lived from 43 BC-17 AD and wrote about Daedalus and Icarus in his magnum opus Metamorphoses (Myth). Daedalus was an inventor, architect, and sculptor, who is credited with building a labyrinth for King Minos of Crete to sacrifice youth to the Minotaur, a creature with a human body and the head of a bull. In the myth, the daughter of King Minos falls in love with Theseus, the Prince of Crete, who volunteers to be one of the youth to be slain so he can slaughter the Minotaur. Theseus kills the Minotaur and with help from Daedalus, he is able to escape the labyrinth. Daedalus and his son, Icarus are punished for this and are thrown into the labyrinth. It did not take long for them to escape because being the architects of the labyrinth, they knew how to get out. Daedalus, fearing King Minos, needs to flee to Crete so he creates wings made of flax thread, wax, and feathers. The flight is successful until his son Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting the wax, causing him to fall from the sky to his death (The Myth of Daedalus and …show more content…
I tried hard at Ole Miss to fit in but it was not working. I assimilated as best as I could by wearing the same preppy clothes, joining a fraternity, and with beaming approval from my father, becoming a member of the secretive, prestigious, campus hunting club that William Faulkner himself was affiliated with. I had to lie about myself and be someone completely different out of fear, which compromised my self-esteem. Conformity and going along with the crowd was crucial. If anyone found out I was gay, I could have been seriously hurt.
Ole Miss had become my labyrinth and similar to the victims of King Minos, I was imprisoned in the utter darkness of ignorance and homophobia. The narrow minded students all around me were the Minotaur; monsters that liked nothing better than to brutally take someone down. I was hiding from myself and my future, one that would eventually take me on a journey far away from the University of Mississippi and its history of intolerance, racism, and heterosexism; but only if I could escape like Daedalus and