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PHAETHON (Gr. gSaEBwv, shining, radiant)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 342 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHAETHON (Gr. gSaEBwv, shining, radiant) , in See also:Greek See also:mythology, the son of Helios the See also:sun-See also:god, and the nymph Clymene. He persuaded his See also:father to let him drive the See also:chariot of the sun across the See also:sky, but he lost See also:control of the horses, and See also:driving too near the See also:earth scorched it. To See also:save the See also:world from utter destruction See also:Zeus killed Phaethon with a thunderbolt. He See also:fell to earth at the mouth of the See also:Eridanus, a See also:river of See also:northern See also:Europe (identified in later times with the Po), on the See also:banks of which his weeping sisters, the Heliades, were transformed into poplars and their tears into See also:amber. This See also:part of the See also:legend points to the mouth of the See also:Oder or See also:Vistula, where amber abounds. Phaethon was the subject of a See also:drama of the same name by See also:Euripides, of which some fragments remain, and of a lost tragedy of See also:Aeschylus (Heliades) ; the See also:story is most fully told in the Metamorphoses of See also:Ovid (i. 750-ii. 366 and See also:Nonnus, Dionysiaca, xxxviii). Phaethon has been identified with the sun himself and with the See also:morning See also:star (See also:Phosphorus). In the former See also:case the legend is supposed to represent the sun sinking in the See also:west in a See also:blaze of See also:light. His See also:identification with the morning star is supported by See also:Hyginus (Astron. ii. 42), where it is stated that the morning (and evening) star was the son of Cephalus and Eos (the father and See also:mother of Phaethon according to See also:Hesiod, Theog.

984-986). The fall of Phaethon is a favourite subject, especially on See also:

sarcophagus reliefs, as indicating the transitoriness of human See also:life. See G. Knaack, " Quaestiones Phaethonteae," in Philologische Untersuchungen (1885); F. Wieseler, Phaethon (1857); Wilamowitz-M011endorff and C. See also:Robert in See also:Hermes, xviii. (1883) ; Frazer's See also:Pausanias, ii. 59 ; S. See also:Reinach, Revue de 1' /See also:list. See also:des religions, lviii. (1908).

End of Article: PHAETHON (Gr. gSaEBwv, shining, radiant)

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