icarus would have died smiling ☀️

this was sitting in my notes for too long I had to let it see the sun

And I think you forget that Icarus was a prisoner.

Because if you remembered, you would understand why he flew so close to the sun. How can you mock a soul who reached for the first warm thing he had ever felt, even if it would kill him, when you would do the same? How can you criticise a boy for dying cradled in the arms of the ocean, whose beauty he had never seen before, when you yearn to be held by something beautiful too? If you were put in Icarus’ place, you wouldn’t take the middle path. If you’d never had the freedom to leave anywhere, you would abuse the freedom of flight too. You would soar towards the sun, and it would melt your wings with its warmth, and you would die in the ocean, held by its beautiful body, and you would not regret it. Icarus would have died smiling, because after years of imprisonment, he finally got to live, in those few precious moments before his fall.

The Lament for Icarus by Herbert James Draper