Greatness is the most powerful driving myth over human behavior as far as legacy making is concerned, the moment that a heroic figure or wannabe heroic figure decides upon itself to make his foot prints unmissable in the march of history the shadows of heroic forefathers begin looming over them. Despite the heroic uniqueness present in each being it seems as though that for those who seek greatness the threads of fate spin the same great myth, something that was not missed by these people, at the beginning of the journey of every figure that went on to make a mark in history there was the moment of inspiration, the spark from previous tales that lit up the fire of a new conqueror. Alexander the Great look up to Cyrus, visited his tomb in a ritual whereby he took on his legacy, Caesar would do the same for both Alexander and Cyrus, looking up to them, visiting their graves, and dreaming of his own time in the sun, then followed Napoleon, who inherited the collective legacies of Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar and others such as Charlegmane.
Yet it is not a glorious epic that any of those figures went on to write -Excluding Cyrus, who is excluded from this tradition as he was the one that first inspired everyone else-, it was a tragedy, it was a greek tragedy that spoke of one of ancient greek society’s favorite themes, hubris. All of them failed, dying a tragic death rather than living a long life, even if they achieved glory in all their conquests their tales all end with there being nothing to be done, their road to glory was also the road to their own downfall, in classic tragic fashion their own traits that made them so successful are what eventually brought down their end as the reality of the everything else came crashing into them like gravity. The seekers of greatness do not follow the myth that Cyrus set forth, instead, it was Icarus who they truly emulated, for they sought to fly into the sky, yet no hands can touch the sun.
The story of Icarus has long been seen as a cautionary tale, when it is written on most sheets of papers or comes out of any teachers mouth it is to be taken as a reason to not fly high, to keep yourself below the clouds, hubris heralds ultimate divine punishment is the lesson of many greek myths. But this notion fails to consider what gives us Icarus in the first place, had he not attempted to go beyond there would never be a myth in the first place, his existence lost to nothingness as no legacy is left, and Icarus would’ve never existed. Only because he sought to usurp the birds in heaven did he end up living in the form of myth in the first place, his hubris is what gave him life and his death is what gave his life meaning.
Yet the point is not to justify acts of grandeur for the sake of being remembered, being remembered is meaningless to the individual as it is something completely outside itself, your worries about the world after you are only valid insofar as they worry the you of now, not leaving a legacy isn’t worrying because of you not leaving a legacy, because a legacy is meaningless to the dead, but because not leaving a legacy worries someone who wants to leave a legacy, the legacy itself has no value to you. In this way grandeur for the sake of legacy is idiotic, it's a sacrifice of yourself for an idea in the future. Instead what the act of Icarus and those that came after him represent is something much greater, its living, it's what created the art which creates the myth, and art always comes from living, authentic living, unalienated living, it's an affirmation of life to fly high.
The tale of Icarus for these reasons is not a cautionary one, but an inspirational one, the actions of Icarus are heroic and his tragedy is a beautiful and artistic one, as opposed to grandeur for grandeur or grandeur for legacy in which this tragedy is attempted to be avoided the acceptance of the myth of Icarus is one that generates art in the form that tragedy, allowing the individual to transcend the vulgar concepts of glory and legacy in order to join itself into the context of art as is manifested by the tragedy it creates. The myth of Icarus and the beauty in it does not lie in the act of reaching towards the sky but in the myth as a whole, because it is under this full context of the myth that the act of grandeur becomes an act of artistic expression and life affirmation as opposed to slavery to any fixed idea, the disobedience that Icarus displays and his ultimate fall are necessary for this assertion of the desire of living.
The moment of disobedience is the moment of assertion, the moment in which Icarus decides against conformism and follows his own way, this is the beginning of life, in which no longer Icarus is bound by a cage and bonds material and familial, but by his own will and the whims of life itself, at that point it is not even the act of flying high that gives him life, it's the act of flying by himself. Yet a safe life is a meaningless life, had Icarus chosen to fly safely he would’ve simply traded the prison of stone and metal to the one of Apollo, he dared to going beyond and in this did he find meaning and freedom, a meaning that would resonate and inspire as it was the spark of life itself. And the moment of his fall was the moment in which his living was truly solidified, because to live is to die, there is no dying without living and therefore to dare to live is to accept that you will die, the fear of death is the fear of living, only by accepting the inevitability of death can one truly live, such is the tragedy of Icarus, in which his drive to live created the path toward his death.
Looking up at Icarus do we see a beacon calling us forth, his wings ablaze shining like a star who is long dead but whose light can still be seen, deciding to live and to assert yourself is to decide to come crashing down in flames, the acceptance of that fact being the genesis of heroes, life can only be lived by running towards death and the heroic sentiment is to fly towards the sky knowing its a fleeting dream, knowing that it will all come crashing down around you, but understanding that such a thing is the act of living, and that the beautiful tragedy that is composed will forever be the testament to your life.