Landscape With Icarus Falling by Brueghel
The water stood in the center of the corridor floor and Starling, ever mindful of her shoes, stepped from one side of the narrow puddle to the other as she proceeded. She remembered Barney's advice from years ago when all the cells were occupied. Stay in the middle as you go down. - Hannibal, page 77
We were talking about inherited, hardwired behavior. He was using genetics in roller pigeons as an example. They go way up in the air and roll over and over backwards in a display, falling toward the ground. There are shallow rollers and deep roller. You can't breed two deep rollers or the offspring will roll all the way down, crash and die. - Hannibal, page 92
She batted against the glass ceiling like a bee in a bottle. - Hannibal, page 27
"The Journal of Neurophysiology's going to one zip code and Physica Scripta and ICARUS are going to another." ... "What's ICARUS?" "It's the international journal of solar system studies." - Hannibal, Page 372
Before they took flight, Daedalus cautioned his son to take the middle course. If he flew too low, his wings would get wet in the sea. If he flew too high, the sun would melt the wax. So stay in the middle.
But Icarus had been imprisoned for a long time. As soon as he was airborn, he exalted in his freedom and the thrill of flight. He soared higher and higher until he had gone too far. His wings melted and he tumbled into the sea where he drowned.
Originally, this tale was probably a warning to all children to obey their parents. But it has been interpreted and re-interpreted many times since. Here are a few examples:
Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on,
testing this strange little tug at his shoulder blade,
and think of that first flawless moment over the lawn
of the labyrinth. Think of the difference it made!
There below are the trees, as awkward as camels;
and here are the shocked starlings pumping past
and think of innocent Icarus who is doing quite well:
larger than a sail, over the fog and the blast
of the plushy ocean, he goes. Admire his wings!
Feel the fire at his neck and see how casually
he glances up and is caught, wondrously tunneling
into that hot eye. Who cares that he fell back to the sea?
See him acclaiming the sun and come plunging down
while his sensible daddy goes straight into town.
-- Anne Sexton
Icarus is in the lower right corner. The following poem describes this painting quite well.
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the plowman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
-- W. H. Auden
Note the handles and straps on the wings much like Icarus would need.