In response to Demeter (Dame Gretchen Pickart), an overexcited Hephaestus (Zack Garrity) gets a bit tongue tied.

This is an unbelievable tale about a young boy, Billy, and a retired old horse, Murphy, during a dangerous snowstorm.

Billy's younger sister, Addie, has broken her leg falling through some lake ice. Billy, and his father and uncle, must get her to safety as quickly as possible, but where is safety in a blizzard of epic proportions? And what does any of this have to do with the unbelievable Murphy?

Embrace the unbelievable to see how it all begins, and how it all ends.  

In this new and improved version of Act V, Sir Brett Ewer takes on the role of mighty Minos, playing the King of Crete with authority. The story line remains the same, viz.,

This final episode of Icarus, Son of Daedalus is the aftermath to the fall of Icarus - Act V and an Epilogue.

No, Daedalus does not fall, but what does he do after his son’s demise? Does he fly on?

Although he grieves for Icarus, he cannot stop his flight too long as Minos is not happy that his prized engineer has escaped and is in hot pursuit. And so Daedalus, after doing proper rites for his son, flies on to sanctuary with the King of Sicily, Cocalus. Having landed there safely, Daedalus literally hangs up his wings and gives up flying forever and for a charmed moment, finds a degree of safety with Cocalus and his two daughters.

Then, in an unfortunate turn of events, Daedalus’s genius gives himself away by solving the riddle of the shell - in Minos’s own words, he outfoxed the foxy engineer - and Minos reclaims his engineer.

What next? Will sanctuary be respected? Will Cocalus protect his refugee? If not, will Daedalus go willingly? Will his wings stay hung in the temple to Apollo? Will Minos burn the palace to the ground to get back his genius? Can anyone else stand up to Minos?

This final episode of Icarus, son of Daedalus is the aftermath to the fall of Icarus - Act V and an Epilogue.

No, Daedalus does not fall, but what does he do after his son’s demise? Does he fly on? 

Although he grieves for Icarus, he cannot stop his flight too long as Minos is not happy that his prized engineer has escaped and is in hot pursuit. And so Daedalus, after doing proper rites for his son, flies on to sanctuary with the King of Sicily, Cocalus. Having landed there safely, Daedalus literally hangs up his wings and gives up flying forever and finds a degree of safety with Cocalus and his two daughters. 

Then, in an unfortunate turn of events, Daedalus’s genius gives himself away by solving the riddle of the shell- in Minos’s own words, he outfoxed the foxy engineer - and Minos claims his engineer.  

What next? Will sanctuary be respected? Will Cocalus protect his refugee? If not, will Daedalus go willingly? Will his wings stay hung in the temple to Apollo? Will Minos burn the palace to the ground to get back his genius? Can anyone stand up to Minos?

Spoiler alert: Icarus dies!

This is the episode we all know and love (?). With time on their hands in the tower of Crete, Icarus and Daedalus assess their situation and try to figure a way to escape their confinement. Inspiration comes at last, and, despite a few hiccups and some friction between father and son during the process, they make extensive preparations to fly the coop on wings of their own inventing. 

The question remains though: how will Minos react to the escape of his invaluable engineer?

In this episode of Icarus, son of Daedalus, we hear of the consequences of defying King Minos. In Act III Daedalus gets thrown in the maze for his instrumental help satisfying Queen Pasiphae's abnormal desire for the bull from the sea. Icarus, in an unusual fit of loyalty, dutifully joins his father in the maze.  Meanwhile, her desire slaked, Queen Pasiphae herself defies Minos and helps father and son escape the labyrinth, but Minos has been suspicious of Pasiphae for some time, and he catches all three before they can completely escape. Not only for this will there be Hades to pay from Minos, but also for Daedalus’s part in aiding and abetting Princess Ariadne and the hero tribute Theseus when they slew the Minotaur and escaped the labyrinth.  Given all this treachery, can you fault Minos his high dudgeon?  The episode ends as father and son are led to the inescapable tower of Crete, their second and final incarceration.

In this episode of Icarus, son of Daedalus, you’ll hear more backstory as to what led to Icarus and Daedalus being imprisoned in the tower by king Minos. At this point the young Icarus is no longer obsessed with Pasiphae, which is a relief to all, yet he is not quite grounded and is now all hot and bothered for Doula, the maidservant who helped him get over the Queen. 

Pasiphae’s obsession with the bull of Poseidon has definitely not abated, and so she gets Daedalus to work on the infamous invention which will enable her to get with the object of her desire. Having worked hard on this device, Daedalus finally has it ready for the following day and instructs Pasiphae on final details to ensure the successful deception and coupling. 

Surely there will be consequences as all these preparations have not gone unnoticed by, among others, Minos?

Enjoy and embrace, especially here with Icarus, the strange and risqué.

Everyone has heard about the fall of Icarus, right? The poster boy for adolescent heedlessness? But what do we really know about the young man beyond his fall?

This episode of Icarus, son of Daedalus explores the backstory by covering the difficult youth of Icarus on the island Crete, where his father Daedalus is a virtual prisoner of the powerful King Minos, and his close and fraught relationships, respectively, with his mother, Naukrate, the former concubine of King Minos, and of course his father Daedalus, the creator of the labyrinth and inventor extraordinaire. Not to mention the unstable (at this time) Queen Pasiphae and her obsession and quote unquote relations with Poseidon's bull from the sea. 

What led to Icarus's foolishness? Was it all his doing? Was it inevitable that he tune out his father? Should Daedalus shoulder some of the blame? His mother Naukrate? King Minos and his court? Nature versus nurture? Tune in to learn more about this complex character beyond the archetype for teen rebellion.   

Subsequent episodes will of course speak to the father and son's imprisonment in the tower on Crete, the invention and assembly of the famous wings for escape and of course, the infamous fall, but also the continuation of Daedalus’s flight from Minos to Sicily after the loss of his dear son, Icarus.

This is just the previously released four episodes of MC's Homeric Cycle combined into one episode for your listening convenience. 

In these podcasts, you’ll hear the Homeric cycle in a generally linear, episodic, but decidedly non-academic and at times rather breezy version of Homer’s epic saga, as if MC were a Greek rhapsode narrating it to you around a campfire outside the classroom, sort of authentic to the oral tradition, decidely low tech. Again, the Homeric Cycle is the Iliad and the Odyssey and all the sidebars, digressions and ancillary stories that orbit the two epics. But in my cycle, I have not yet gotten to the Odyssey, primarily because that story has been told and taught ad nauseam, whereas the Iliad,  in my humble opinio, deserves a little more treatmentn. 

Episode 1 includes a brief introduction to the Cycle in toto, then lays out the prequel to the Iliad: the Golden Apple of Discord, the Judgment of Paris and its fallout, Helen of Sparta and the tricky enlistment of Achilles and Odysseus into the Greek war effort.

Episode 2 moves forward through the challenges the Greeks, Agamemnon primarily, face launching the thousand ships to wage war on Troy and retrieve Helen, then, having reached Troy, the discord among the Greeks that leads to the rage of Achilles, the showdown between the offending Paris and the offended Menelaus, and an aristeia of Diomedes involving the gods, as well as an interesting sidebar that forms part of the Homeric tradition.

Much of Episode 3 hews to the story line of the Iliad, meaning the focus is on the latter stages of the rage of Achilles and its tragic consequences but ultimately also its glorious aftermath. Patrokles and Hector are key elements but an outraged river also makes an appearance? The destructive nature of excess and the paramount importance of honor are the beating hearts of this episode. 

This last episode in the series highlights events beyond the scope of the Iliad but which are definitely within the Cycle. First and foremost, Achilles’s death. The Iliad itself ends with the death of Hector, not Achilles, yet as foretold, Achilles's end must follow hard on the heels, as it were, of Hector’s. This episode also answers questions you may have about various other participants: Menelaus, Agamemnon, Philoctetes, Diomedes, Helen, Paris, Laocoon, Priam, Hecuba, Cassandra, Aeneas, Criseis & Briseis. What happens to Ajax is particularly heartbreaking, IMHO. You may wonder if there is more in store for members of the cursed house of Atreus? Fo sho! The house is fodder for much of Greek tragedy. And of course, the elephant in the room, as it were, the Trojan Horse and the fall of Troy after ten years of war. 

It is strange and twisty, the Homeric Cycle. Hope you enjoy and thanks for listening. 

MC. 

This episode highlights events outside of the scope of the Iliad but which are definitely within the Homeric cycle. First and foremost, Achilles’s death must follow hard on the heels, as it were, of Hector’s. But then also questions you may have about the various other participants: Menelaus, Agamemnon, Philoctetes, Diomedes, Helen, Paris, Priam, Hecuba, Cassandra, Criseis & Briseis. Not to mention Odysseus. What happens to Ajax is particularly heartbreaking IMHO. Is there more in store for the cursed house of Atreus? Yes, definitely. And of course, the elephant in the room, as it were, the Trojan Horse and the fall of Troy after ten years of war. Much of this last episode is strange and tragic but fitting somehow. Enjoy episode 4 and thank you for listening.