The true version is that Daedalus and his son, Icarus were very skilled wizards and worked for the Minoan king. When Minos became king, however, they were both envied by the king because of their magical skill. Therefore, rather than have them executed, Minos chose to have them face the Minotaur in his Labyrinth he had built. Both Daedalus and Icarus were decieved and eventually found themselves trapped within the Labyrinth.
With their magical skills they did manage to stave of the minotaur for sometime as they searched for the exit. After a few days, however, it soon became near impossible to find the exit. So rather than face another deadly encounter with the powerful minotaur, they both decided to use a winged transfiguration to escape. This they did and both flew from the maze and escaped the minotaur's lair. However, for a winged transfiguration to be successful, it does require great concentration and skill, somthing for which Icarus did not employ. Instead, he took to flight and disobeyed the words of his father as he played joyfully soaring in the clouds. With that type of transfiguration, and his concentration down, the spell soon ceased to work and Icarus' transfiguration failed him as he plummeted to the ocean below. Lest he fall victim to the same fate, his father could do nothing for his son and was forced to keep flying until he reached land where he could mourn the loss of his son.
Rather than let the muggle-borns of the island know that he was a wizard, having faced such harsh treatment at the hand of Minos, he told the people there that the wings were made of feathers and wax and that his son, foolishly flew too close to the sun, melting the wax. The islanders were appeased with this explanation for they had seen Icarus fall to his doom in a shower of feathers from the broken charm and accepted Daedalus as one of their own naming the island Icaria as well as the sea, the Icarian Sea to honour the father's memory of the loss of his foolish son.
Since then, winged transfigurations have been banned for underage wizards and witches at Hogwarts and nearly everywhere else mainly due to the complexities and danger from the spell if performed wrong and not held in concentration. This does in fact happen to be one of the reasons why brooms, or other flying charms are preferred rather than something so complex. Still though, the transfiguration does make a wonderful decoration to walk around with as many who don such a spell do take the appearance of "angels."
It is also said that some transfigurations have even been know to employ wings such as that of a dragon and without even a single feather.
What about you? What do you think of the study of Transfiguration in general? Have you ever performed any difficult or complex transfigurations in your day?
