Icarus

Icarus was the son of the inventor Daedalus, who built the labyrinth of King Minos. Famed for flying too near the sun and falling to his death, Icarus was driven mad in the Underworld, and after decades of crude repairs to his wings he escaped to seek the Sisters of Fate, only to meet Kratos at the Great Chasm of the Island of Creation.

The fall and the Underworld#

Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the brilliant architect who had built the labyrinth of King Minos to imprison the Minotaur. After flying too near the sun on wings of feather and wax, Icarus fell and drowned, and his soul descended into the Underworld. There the torment of his prison and the memory of his own prideful failure broke his mind.

Though he lacked much of his father's talent, Icarus set himself to repairing his ruined wings, and over the course of decades he worked at them, at last grafting them directly to the flesh of his own back. With this he finally clawed his way out of the Underworld. Yet escape did not content him. Miserable and unsuited to the life he now led, he resolved to reach the Sisters of Fate and undo the death that had marked him, and so he made his way to the Island of Creation.

The Great Chasm#

Kratos encountered Icarus in the Great Chasm of the Island, where the old man crawled out from beneath a bridge, filthy and raving. Icarus tried to turn the Spartan back, insisting that the crossing of the chasm was his test and his alone, that only he would fly across to gain an audience with the Sisters and change his fate. When Kratos pushed him aside, Icarus declared that the Sisters would never allow a fallen god to reach them, then wrenched free and pulled them both over the edge.

They fought the whole way down into the chasm, but Icarus was soon overmatched. Pleading for his life, he came to believe the Sisters had sent the Spartan to help him. His pleas went unanswered. Kratos tore the wings from his back to save himself, and Icarus fell screaming into the Underworld a final time, with no means of escape, while the Spartan glided down on the stolen wings to land upon the Titan Atlas.

A grieving father#

Icarus left behind a father who never stopped longing for him. In the Chambers of Daedalus, where the inventor had once labored over his works, Daedalus had set down notes recording how he missed his son and wished him returned. Zeus had promised to bring Icarus back to him in exchange for building a great Labyrinth, and at first Daedalus wrote with hope, but as he completed the work perfectly and his son did not come, his joy curdled into despair.

When Kratos found the enchained Daedalus, the old inventor at first mistook him for Icarus, and asked where his son was. Kratos admitted that Icarus was dead, though he did not confess that he was the cause. The revelation broke Daedalus, who realized all his labor had been for nothing and cursed Zeus for breaking their bargain. Whether Icarus, like the other dead, was undone by Kratos' later reversal of time remains unknown.