Icarius
(
Ἰκάριος).
1.
An Athenian, father of Erigoné. Having been taught by Dionysus the culture of
the vine, he gave some of the juice of the grape to certain shepherds, who, thinking
themselves poisoned, killed him. When they came to their senses they buried him; and his
daughter Erigoné, being shown the spot by his faithful dog Maera, hanged herself
through grief (
Apollod. iii.14.7;
Hyg. Fab. 130). Icarius was fabled to have been changed after death
into the constellation Boötes, Erigoné into Virgo, while Maera became the
star Procyon. (See
Aeora;
Erigoné.)
2.
A son of Oebalus of Lacedaemon. He gave his daughter Penelopé in marriage to
Odysseus, king of Ithaca, but he was so tenderly attached to her that he wished her husband
to settle at Lacedaemon. Odysseus refused; and when he saw the earnest petitions of
Icarius, he told Penelopé, as they were going to embark, that she might choose
freely either to follow him to Ithaca or to remain with her father. Penelopé
blushed in silence, and covered her head with her veil. Icarius, upon this, permitted his
daughter to go to Ithaca, and immediately erected a temple to the goddess of modesty, on the
spot where Penelopé had covered her blushes with her veil.