Daedalus and Icarus

Question 1

Daedalus intereā Crētēn longumque perōsus
exilium, tactusque locī nātālis amōre,
clausus erat pelagō.

Answer 1

Daedalus meanwhile hating Crete and his long exile, and moved by the love of his birth place, had been shut off by the sea.

Question 2

“Terrās licet,” inquit, “et undās

obstruat, at caelum certē patet;

Answer 2

He said, “granted that Minos blocks the earth and waves, but the sky certainly lies open.”

Question 3

Ībimus illāc:

omnia possideat, nōn possidet āera Mīnōs.”

Answer 3

We will go by that route: Minos may dominate everything, he does not dominate the sky.

Question 4

Dīxit et ignōtās animum dīmittit in artēs

nātūramque novat;

Answer 4

He said this and he devotes his mind to his strange crafts and changes nature;

Question 5

nam pōnit in ōrdine pennās
ā minimā coeptās, longam breviōre sequentī,
ut clīvō crēvisse putēs:

Answer 5

for he puts on the feathers in order having been begun from the smallest, with the shorter one following the long, so that you might think that the feathers grew on a slope:

Question 6

sīc rūstica quondam

fistula disparibus paulātim surgit avēnīs;

Answer 6

thus a country sheppard’s pipe once rose little by little with reeds of different lengths;

Question 7

tum līnō mediās et cērīs alligat īmās,
atque ita compositās parvō curvāmine flectit,
ut vērās imitētur avēs.

Answer 7

then he binds up the middle feathers with thread and the lowest feathers with wax, and he bends them placed together with a small curve in such a way that he imitates real birds.

Question 8

Puer Īcarus ūnā
stābat et, ignārus sua sē tractāre perīcla,
ōre renīdentī modo, quās vaga mōverat aura,
captābat plūmās,

Answer 8

The boy Icarus was standing with him, and unaware that he was touching his own dangers, at one time with a beaming face, was trying to catch the feathers that the wandering air had moved,

Question 9

flāvam modo pollice cēram
mollībat, lūsūque suō mīrābile patris
impediēbat opus.

Answer 9

at another time he was softening the yellow wax with his thumb, and hindering the marvelous work of his father with his game.

Question 10

Postquam manus ultima coeptō
inposita est, geminās opifex lībrāvit in ālās
ipse suum corpus mōtāque pependit in aurā.

Answer 10

After the final touch was placed on the work, the craftsman balanced his own body onto twin wings, and he suspended in the moved air.