Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Cocalus.
The gallery
Daedalus and Icarus
Anthony van Dyck, c. 1620
Van Dyck's wing-fitting: Daedalus prepares the flight that will end in Icarus' fall and the craftsman's later refuge with King Cocalus at Camicus in Sicily.
Daedalus and Icarus
Andrea Sacchi, c. 1645
Sacchi's Baroque father and son — the Cretan escape whose survivor Daedalus will shelter under Cocalus' roof when Minos pursues him across the sea.
Minos (detail from The Last Judgment)
Michelangelo, 1536–1541
Michelangelo's Minos in the Sistine Last Judgment — the judge-king who, in the Sicilian tale, tracks Daedalus to Cocalus and dies in the boiling bath the king's daughters prepare.
In play
Cocalus
King of Camicus in Sicily who shelters Daedalus and engineers Minos' death — the western end of the craftsman's exile.
Daedalus
Cocalus' famous guest — the labyrinth-builder who flees Crete and finds a second court in Sicily.
Minos
The Cretan king who pursues Daedalus with the spiral-shell riddle and dies at Cocalus' palace — hospitality as trap.