Icarus's Astral Navigation

Extract

TheMetamorphoses version has been culled for several anthologies. At line 206 editors comment that the Great Bear defines the north and Orion the south, leaving their readers to take Daedalus' instructions at their face value. Professor William S. Anderson, in his lovely new edition of Books vi–x, repeats the formula, observing by the way that Orion is visible in the northern hemisphere during two winter months only. Stop, please! I have a difficulty. A squadron commander who began a briefing for a daylight operation by telling his crews to leave their star charts behind, since they were going to fly all the way in formation, would be considered overdue for a long spell of leave before his oddities took a more dangerous turn. Why am I to suppose that Daedalus intends a night flight ? Aerial interception is not a risk. Cretan archery may be never so renowned, but any theory that Daedalus has decided to take off from the ‘monte minor collis’ (Ars Am.) under cover of darkness, as a precaution against ground fire, finds no support in the text of Ovid; nor does there seem to be any reason to suppose that the flight is to take place during those two months of winter when Orion is visible. Everything points to the contrary. From the moment both are airborne Daedalus is watching and criticizing his son's performance, and their progress is observed by fishermen, shepherds, and ploughmen, who are not usually night-workers with infra-red vision.