Falkener, Edward: Daedalus or the causes and principles of the excellence of Greek sculpture (London, 1860)

PREFACE.

xvii

" Though lie escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffered
him not to live."

" Raro antecedentem scelestum
Deseruifc pede Poena claudo,"

Hoe. iii. Od. 2, 31.

Had he been guilty of the more detestable crime, said
to have been committed against his kind protector
and benefactor, the maker of the Grnossian cow
would have been equally infamous with the maker
of the Syracusan bull. Dasdalus and Perillus Avould
have been alike hated and despised. In this in-
stance, at least, we may with Diodorus affirm that
" the ancient writers commemorate many things
which never were, being bred up in idle tales from a
daily acquaintance with fabulous Avritings :" and
we. are the more justified in this belief, that Plato
and Plutarch attribute the fable to the hatred which
the Greeks entertained of King Minos. Presuming
then that these crimes were never perpetrated, we
may suppose that the fable conceals some allegory.
What the pretended murder of his nephew and
pupil may signify, it is difficult to divine. Perhaps,
that the skill and discoveries of Dasdalus were
greater than one man alone could attain to;
perhaps it merely meant to indicate the jealousy

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