Daedalus Daedalus, and he to Hephaestus, son of Zeus." This suggests that Daedalus was related to Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths, and therefore to Zeus himself. Daedalus is first mentioned by Homer as the creator of a wide dancing-ground for Ariadne. He also created the Labyrinth on Crete, in which the Minotaur (part man, part bull) was kept. In the story of the labyrinth as told by the Hellenes, the Athenian hero Theseus is challenged to kill the Minotaur, finding his way with the help of Ariadne's thread. Daedalus' appearance in Homer is in an extended metaphor, "plainly not Homer's invention",
1864 Daedalus "Daedalus". The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center before November 1977 (). 1864 Daedalus 1864 Daedalus, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately 3 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 24 March 1971, by Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory, California, and named after Daedalus from Greek mythology. "Daedalus" is a member of the Apollo asteroids, a group of near-Earth object with an Earth-crossing orbit. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 0.6–2.4 AU once every 1 years and 9 months