The King of Crete, Minos, had monster for a son, Minotaur. When he ascended to the throne, Minos asked for a sign from the sea god Poseidon to assert his claim to the throne.
The sea god sent him a snow-white bull as a sign that Minos was the ruler supreme. Minos vowed to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon as a sign of gratitude. However, Minos changed his mind and decided to keep the bull for himself. Posiedon, displeased, punished Minos.
Posiedon designed a cruel punishment for Minos. He made the wife of Minos fall in love with the snow-white bull.
Delirious and desiring the bull, the wife of Minos asked Daedalus, the King’s architect, to construct for her a hollow wooden cow. Using the hollow wooden cow she made amorous advances towards the bull which resulted into the birth of Minotaur.
Ashamed, the King asked his architect, Daedalus, to build a labyrinth to hide his beastly son that grew gigantic and violent day after day. Daedalus built a labyrinth with such twists and turns that even he had a hard time finding his way out. It is in this labyrinth that Minos kept Minotaur.
Daedalus had the most brilliant mind in Crete. One day the King set a complex puzzle. He promised a reward to any person in Crete who could solve the complex puzzle of successfully running a string through a spiral sea shell.
At one end of the spiral sea shell Daedalus placed a drop of honey. He then tied a string to an ant and let the insect into the shell from the other end. The ant, attracted by the sweet smell of honey on the other end of the shell, went through, drawing the string with it to the other end.
Unfortunately, Daedalus couldn’t save his own son from the King. Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son, Icarus, because he did not want the secret of Minotaur, his beastly son, and the labyrinth he was held in, becoming known. Daedalus and Icarus were therefore kept by the King in a high tower.
Daedalus over time crafted a plan of escape. He started gathering all the feathers he could find. He joined them together with wax and fashioned two pairs of wings, one for himself and the other for his son. Daedalus warned his son, Icarus, before they set off.
Icarus was warned not to fly too close to the sea for that would dampen his feathers. Icarus was warned not to fly too close to the sun for that would melt the wax.
Father and son perched on the edge of their high tower prison cell and leapt off. Flapping their wings, in no time they were flying over the sea, putting great distance between themselves and Crete.
Unfortunately, Icarus forgot the warnings of his father. Thrilled by the escape and blinded with the thrill of flying, Icarus flew too high and too close to the sun.
The intense heat melted the wax on his pair of wings and the feathers came loose. Icarus dropped into the ocean and drowned.
His father’s industry and engineering brilliance could not save Icarus from hubris.
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The Kenyatta and Odinga legacies are part of the foundation stone on which Kenya is built and stands today. Fable and myth are documented and continue to be whispered of these two.
What a Minotaur, what intolerable cruelty it is to the legacies of these two legends, that the nation they once walked to independence, and led as president and deputy in 1963, teeters on the precipice 54 years later because of a conflict pitting their two sons.
Pray, who will whisper to their sons that they are flying too close to the sun? Who will string them through the spiraling sea shell that Kenya has become?
The writer is an advocate of the High Court.
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