Reply To: How does the legend of Icarus resonate in the Torah?

secret: It’s a Yerushalmi brought down in several other Midrashic works and a Tosfos in Avodah Zarah. It says he saw the world “K’kadur” and the sea “K’ke’ara”. People like to quote the first half as Kadur meaning “spherical”. But it’s clearly not true from context. In context it means that the Tanna/Amora who told over this Aggadta thought that the Earth was a rounded object rising out of the massive sea that surrounds it (imagine an upside-down bowl). The conception of the earth being shaped like that also gives a Pshat in the Midrash that says that Eretz Yisrael is taller than all other lands. If E”Y is the midpoint of the world and the world is shaped like a curved bump rising out of the sea, then the midpoint would indeed be the tallest point.