Cocalus- Greek FigureMortal"King of Camicus"

Daedalus in Sicily

Cocalus was king of Camicus, a fortified city in western Sicily, and ruler of the Sicanians who inhabited the island before the Greeks arrived. After Daedalus escaped Crete by flight — the journey in which his son Icarus fell into the sea — the craftsman reached Sicily and was received at Cocalus's court. He repaid his host's protection with marvels: an impregnable treasury set on a cliff and a bathhouse heated by steam pipes hidden in the walls. Cocalus's court became renowned for these wonders, and the king had every reason to keep his guest safe.

But King Minos of Crete was determined to recapture the man who had helped Theseus escape the Labyrinth. He devised a cunning test: traveling from court to court, he offered a reward to anyone who could thread a spiral seashell — a task only Daedalus's ingenuity could solve. When Minos arrived in Sicily, Cocalus took the shell to Daedalus, who tied a thread to an ant and sent it winding through the spiral. Cocalus presented the threaded shell, and Minos knew his quarry was hidden in the palace.

The Death of Minos

Cocalus feigned compliance when Minos demanded Daedalus's surrender. He invited the Cretan king to enjoy his palace's hospitality, and Minos accepted a bath in the steam room Daedalus had built. While he bathed, Cocalus's daughters — who had grown fond of the craftsman and his wonders — poured boiling water through the hidden pipes, scalding Minos to death. In some accounts the daughters acted on their own initiative; in others, Cocalus himself gave the order. Either way, the murder ended Minos's pursuit and freed Daedalus for good.

The Sicilians of later centuries still pointed to a tomb near Agrigentum as the resting place of the Cretan king who had crossed the sea to reclaim a craftsman and died in a bathhouse instead.