Icarus is an iconic and timeless mythological figure who is the son of Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth in Crete. Daedalus was imprisoned in the Labyrinth by King Minos for helping King Minos' wife cheat on him with a bull. Icarus comes to play when Daedalus wants to escape from the Labyrinth. To do that, Daedalus builds wings for himself and Icarus, made of wax and feathers. Daedalus warns his son not to fly too close to the sun because that would melt the wax on his wings which would tear his wings apart. However, Icarus ignores his father's warnings and flies too close to the sun, and as a result, he falls to the sea and dies. As many would analyze, the moral of the story of Icarus is about knowing your limits and not being too ambitious, which makes him an iconic and timeless figure, yet not every depiction of this story is about hubris. Rock band Starset released a song with the title "Icarus", which is a different take on the story of Icarus that still resembles the actual story. In this article, I will be contrasting the story of Icarus with "Icarus" and explaining why it is still relevant centuries after the initial appearance of the story.

    On the surface level, "Icarus" is not far from the actual story. Some of the essential elements that form the story of Icarus are still apparent in the song. Icarus tries to escape from a prison with wings made of scraps and flies too close to the sun, which ends with him falling from the sky. As one can observe, this is a considerably concise version of the story, and even though some essential elements are here, such as the wings and the escape, some of them are missing, such as his father, who is never directly introduced in "Icarus." He also does not die after falling from the sky, which is a departure from the original story. "Icarus" is, in a way, still about knowing your limits, but it is not about overconfidence; on the contrary, it is about the opposite of it: not believing in yourself. It's about undervaluing your limits and being afraid of the potential you can reach.

    Right off the bat, "Icarus" enters with a deviation from the actual story by giving the listeners a hint of Icarus' survival from the fall with the line "Like you're doing every other time" (Starset 0:25-28), which indicates that Icarus has fallen from the sky before. To emphasize that Icarus has tried this before, Starset uses phrases such as "every other time" and, in further sections, "give it all another try." In the original story, Icarus does not survive the fall despite his best efforts. Another change is that instead of Daedalus making them, Icarus made his wings on his own, which can be understood from the line "made a new pair out of broken things" (Starset 0:29-33). This version of Icarus is capable enough to build his wings more than a couple of times.

    Perhaps the biggest change is Icarus being someone who is afraid to reach his full potential. Again, the song makes these changes abundantly clear right away. Starset uses phrases like "reaching an edge" or "climbing up a peak" to showcase Icarus' struggle to touch his full capability. Then there comes the line "Afraid of heights so you don't believe/You could ever be good enough", which is about Icarus' disbelief in himself (Starset 0:43-49). Starset's version of Icarus, even though he tries to reach his full potential, stops himself from achieving it because he does not think he can live up to the greatness that comes with that potential. The chorus gives some more insight into Icarus' fear of greatness. One of the examples is the line "You always fly right up until it burns" (Starset 0:57-1:04). With the information given before, this line can be interpreted as Icarus, even though it is the reason why he has failed before, always flies close to the sun knowing that it would make him fall because he is afraid of going further and reaching his full capabilities. "Always the victim/Into the flames again" is another line from the chorus that showcases a rather negative side of Icarus' characterization (Starset 1:07-1:12). Even though it is Icarus who is stopping himself from reaching his full potential because Icarus is a self-centred person, he opposes this idea of him being the guilty one. In a way, Icarus' overconfidence can still be seen with these lines. He is so confident in himself that he does not think that he did anything wrong; he blames others for his failures. 

    This idea of flying up and falling is supported by the vocal melody, with the melody going up in the scale and hitting the highest note of the section and then going down the scale to a lower pitch. This descending and ascending motif is accurate for almost all the sections of the song. The verse starts with the note G# over the middle C and goes down to a C# over the middle C. The key of the song is C# minor and G# is the fifth of the root note of the key. So the song starts from a comfortable area, G#, which is one of the stable intervals in a musical key, and falls to less stable intervals like the third and the second. One thing to notice is that a half-step high of a G# is a sixth of the root, A, and it's a less stable interval than the G#, which supports the idea that this version of Icarus plays it safe. The verse starts with a G# and ends with a C# and the pre-chorus does the same with a similar descending motif. Chorus, however, takes things up a notch and adds a B over the middle C to the mix, which is a seventh of the scale and is one of the most unstable diatonic intervals there. It is then followed by a G# descending to F# which goes back up to an A and back down to G#. This movement shows that Icarus tries to go higher than his comfort zone, but he always descends back to that comfort zone. One thing to notice in this is that F# is a fourth of the scale and, even though it's not as stable as the fifth, the fourth is a rather stable interval too. So Icarus gets out of his comfort zone for a moment, but he retrogrades back to his comfort zone, showcasing his unwillingness to get out of his comfort zone. This motif is followed by a section that includes mostly F# showcasing the same idea that was argued but at a lower note, or height, than before, and this section, just like Chorus and Pre-Chorus, ends with a C#, the root and the most stable note of the scale. The next section continues with a similar structure with Verse, Pre-Chorus and Chorus that almost does the same thing. The second verse does something different by using the third and the second of the scale to create an emotional section, but they sound quite stable with the rest of the arrangement. The third of any given minor scale is also its major mode which is the other dominant mode of a scale. So, using the third of a minor scale, or the root of a major scale, will sound quite stable, and even though the minor second, or the major seventh, is integrated into the melody, it resolves back to an E or a C#. The bridge section of the song is almost a breakdown, but it's not quite there, just like Icarus, who is not quite there at his full potential. This lacklustre breakdown fits in well with the rest of the song, with Dustin almost screaming at the end of the section, which connects back to the same chorus. This simple structure can also be the subject of this argument with the idea of the restraint that Icarus has on himself since the structure of the song is a common structure in popular music.

    Even though Starset's interpretation of Icarus is different from the actual text, they still managed to be true to the core story they are adapting into their songs. "Icarus" has a more layered and in-depth character than the actual story, but he's also less likeable than he is in the actual text. In some ways, Starset may have tried to shed a different light on Icarus and show that he is not ambitious enough and that he is a coward. Even though Icarus changed to be a person that sabotages himself from reaching his full potential, his overconfidence and self-centred attitude can still be seen, so much so that if Icarus' death is taken out of the original text, this version could be a continuation of the actual story where the audience can see a bit more into the character of Icarus. Starset put out a song that respects and captures the story of Icarus but is still different enough that it would fit in with the vision they had for their projects and put their flair on the story.

Nedim Emre Özkaş