Flight of Icarus Singles Chart. It is also the band's first release to feature Nicko McBrain, who replaced Clive Burr on drums in 1982. Despite being one of Iron Maiden's most famous songs, "Flight of Icarus" was not performed live after 1986 until it was finally performed again on May 26, 2018. The song is loosely based on the ancient Greek myth of Icarus who was imprisoned with his father Daedalus in the palace of Knossos on Crete. In an attempt to escape, the pair fabricated wings from feathers and wax so they could fly away. Unfortunately Icarus, not heeding the advice of
Aerope of Crete son of Danae, so he locked her away. Nevertheless, Danae became pregnant, by Zeus according to most accounts, and was cast into the sea by her father, but survived through the intercession of Zeus. In Ovid's "Ars Amatoria", Aerope is given as one of several examples showing that "women's lust", is "keener" than men's and having "more of madness": Aerope of Crete In Greek mythology, Aerope (Ancient Greek: Ἀερόπη) was a daughter of Catreus, the king of Crete, and sister to Clymene, Apemosyne and Althaemenes. She was the wife of Atreus (or Pleisthenes), and by most accounts the mother of