Ikaros

This article is about eagle companion of Kassandra. For other uses, see Ikaros.

He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

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Ikaros (died 5th century) was a male golden eagle who served as a companion to the Spartan misthios Kassandra during the 5th century BCE.

Biography

Ikaros was the oldest and dearest friend of Pythagoras, who sent Ikaros watch over his daughter Kassandra.^[2] In 451 BCE, after the girl was cast down from the top of Mount Taygetos by her adopted father Nikolaos, Ikaros landed beside her at the mountain's base amidst piles of human bones. He remained by her side when she fled from Sparta by boat and washed ashore on Kephallonia.^[3]

Forming a close bond, Ikaros often operated alongside Kassandra during her career as a famed misthios to the extent that her epithet was "the Eagle Bearer".^[4] Due to their connection, many considered Ikaros to be the "eagle of Zeus", as eagles were the sacred animals of the Greek god.^[5]^[6]^[7] When Kassandra decided to leave Greece in 420 BCE to fulfill her duty as the Keeper of the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, Ikaros accompanied her on her new journey^[8] until his eventual death from natural causes.

Legacy

By 405 BCE, when Kassandra traveled to Delos to help the Spartan forces in removing the region's two Athenian commanders Phaidos and Straton, she fondly remarked that she missed Ikaros flying around overhead.^[9] When Kassandra met Layla Hassan at the Gateway to the Lost City in 2018, she mentioned that Ikaros had long since passed away.^[10]

Skills

Ikaros' reconnaissance ability was of great help to Kassandra during her travels. In addition to this, Ikaros helped her also by attacking those who had targeted her, and by distracting Kassandra's human enemies at her bidding. He gave Kassandra literal Eagle Vision, as she saw through his eyes. If Kassandra was hunting, Ikaros would occasionally sweep down to get a kill of his own.^[4]

Behind the scenes

Ikaros is a companion animal for the player character in the 2018 video game Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. He functions almost exactly the same as Senu in the 2017 game Assassin's Creed: Origins, with the sole exception being that he can hurt and even kill humans on his own,^[4] unlike Senu.^[11]

Ikaros shares his name with Ikaros, a figure in Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun against his father Daidalos' advice and fell to his death.^[12]

Although Kassandra could summon Ikaros during her time in Aletheia's simulations of Elysium,^[13] the Underworld,^[14] and Atlantis,^[15] Hades, and Elysium, no explanation has been offered for how this is possible given that Alethia is not known to have also owned a bird with whom she shared senses.