Phaethon

“ Then was the heart of Helios full sad, and he said to Phaethon, 'My child, thou knowest not what thou askest. Thou art not like the gods; and there lives no man who can drive my steeds, or guide the sun-car through the skies. ”

“ Is not this a fairer hope for thee, oh Phaethon, than that which Protagoras held out to thee—that neither seeing Zeus, nor seeing facts as they are, nor affirming any truth whatsoever, nor depending for thy knowledge on any one but thine own ignorant self, thou mightest nevertheless be so fortunate as to escape punishment: not knowing, as it seems to me, that such a state of ignorance and blindfold rashness, even if Tartarus were a dream of the poets or the priests, is in itself the most fearful of punishments? ”

“ S. “But if, again, she said the same thing to Phaethon, she would still speak by the spirit of truth?”
“By no means, Socrates,” said I, laughing.
S. “Be silent, fair boy; you are out of court as an interested party. Alcibiades shall answer. If Lyce, being really mad with love, like Sappho, were to believe Phaethon to be fairer than you, and say so, she would still speak by the spirit of truth?”
A. “I suppose so.”
S. “Do not frown; your beauty is in no question. Only she would then be saying what is not true?” ”

“ Already the people on earth are wondering why the sun does not rise. Do remember, my boy, not to use the whip, and to choose a path across the heavens which is neither too high nor too low."
With but scant attention to his father's advice, Phaethon gave the word to his steeds and dashed out of the gates which Aurora opened for him. And thus began a day which the gods on Olympus and the people on earth never forgot. ”

“ Now, with fullest service, she is worshipped as a goddess by the linen-robed throng. A son, Epaphus, was born to her, thought to have sprung at length from the seed of mighty Jove, and throughout the cities dwelt in temples with his mother. He had a companion of like mind and age named Phaëthon, child of the Sun. When this Phaëthon was once speaking proudly, and refused to give way to him, boasting that Phoebus was his father, the grandson of Inachus rebelled and said: "You are a fool to believe all your mother tells you, and are swelled up with false notions about your father." ”

“ P. “It seems probable; but none is equal to God except himself.”
S. “Most true, Phaethon. But what shall we say now, but that this spirit of truth, whereof thou hast been enamoured, is, according to the argument, none other than Zeus, who alone comprehends all things, and sees them as they are, because he alone has given to each its inward and necessary laws?”
P. “But, Socrates, there seems something impious in the thought.”
S. “Impious, truly, if we held that this spirit of truth was a part of your own self. ”

“ Clymene, his mother, to persuade her son that he will not be distastefully united to one vastly his superior, reveals that he is the son not of Merops but of the Sun-god, Helios, who promised her long ago that he would grant her child one wish. Let Phaethon approach Helios with some request, and prove her story. The prince resolves to do so. The chorus of female attendants enter with a lovely song in honour of Phaethon’s wedding; they picture the whole earth awakening to daily activities. ”

“ Thus Argo cried through the darkness; and the sons of Tyndareus uprose, and lifted their hands to the immortals praying for each boon: but dejection held the rest of the Minyan heroes. And far on sped Argo under sail, and entered deep into the stream of Eridanus; where once, smitten on the breast by the blazing bolt, Phaethon half-consumed fell from the chariot of Helios into the opening of that deep lake; and even now it belcheth up heavy steam clouds from the smouldering wound. And no bird spreading its light wings can cross that water ”

“ And the bard, who was never better pleased than when recounting some wonderful tale, sat down in the midships, where the oarsmen could readily hear him, and told the strange story of Phaethon, the rash son of Helios Hyperion.
"Among the immortals who give good gifts to men, there is no one more kind than Helios, the bestower of light and heat. Every morning when the Dawn with her rosy fingers illumes the eastern sky, good Helios rises from his golden couch, and from their pasture calls his milk-white steeds. ”

“ Human generations pass away, but the earth and the stars abide for ever. Surely the universe is divine. Passing on to the milky way, he gives two fanciful theories of its origin, one that it is the rent burnt by Phaethon through the firmament, the other that it is milk from the breast of Juno. As to its consistency, he wavers between the view that it is a closely packed company of stars, and the more poetical one that it is formed by the white-robed souls of the just. This last theory leads him to recount in a dull catalogue the well-worn list of Greek and Roman heroes. ”

“ The Greeks declared that the great desert of Sahara in Africa is the place where the sun’s chariot scorched the earth, and that it was then that the African negroes were burned black. Phaëthon’s boy friend, who was constantly diving down into the water trying to recover his body, was turned into a swan, and Phaëthon’s weeping sisters were changed into poplar trees.
In our picture we see Apollo holding the reins, accompanied by the Hours and preceded by Aurora and the cherub torch-bearer or morning star. They seem to be moving rapidly on their way, borne up by the clouds. ”

“ Sometimes Phaëthon, his rash, inexperienced son, would take the reins and drive the solar chariot too near the earth, causing the fruits to perish, and the grass to wither, and the wells to dry up. Sometimes, too, the great all-seeing divinity, in his wrath at the impiety of men, would shoot down his scorching arrows, causing pestilence to spread over the land. ”

“ Of these nature myths the story of Phaethon is one.
The ancients believed that drought was caused by the sun's coming too close to the earth; but how could Apollo, experienced driver of the sun- chariot, ever be so careless as to drive close enough to the earth to burn it? It was easy enough to imagine that the chariot, when it did such damage, was being driven by some reckless person who knew not how to guide it. But then arose the necessity of explaining Apollo's willingness to trust such a reckless person with so great a task ”

“ There are legends of the metamorphosis of men: with you the gods also are metamorphosed. Rhea becomes a tree; Zeus a dragon, on account of Persephone; the sisters of Phaëthon are changed into poplars, and Leto into a bird of little value, on whose account what is now Delos was called Ortygia. A god, forsooth, becomes a swan, or takes the form of an eagle, and, making Ganymede his cupbearer, glories in a vile affection. How can I reverence gods who are eager for presents, and angry if they do not receive them? Let them have their Fate! ”

“ Thus also Plato, in his book On the Soul, says that the charioteer and the horse that ran off—the irrational part, which is divided in two, into anger and concupiscence—fall down; and so the myth intimates that it was through the licentiousness of the steeds that Phaëthon was thrown out. ”

“ But tell me now, Alcibiades, did the opinion of Protagoras altogether please you?”
A. “Why not? Is it not certain that two equally honest men may differ in their opinions on the same matter?”
S. “Undeniable.”
A. “But if each is equally sincere in speaking what he believes, is not each equally moved by the spirit of truth?”
S. “You seem to have been lately initiated, and that not at Eleusis merely, nor in the Cabiria, but rather in some Persian or Babylonian mysteries, when you discourse thus of spirits. But you, Phaethon” (turning to me) , “how did you like the periods of Protagoras?” ”

“ This higher desire for domination really appears in individuals, but through them it can also permeate whole nations, and in both cases the enterprise sometimes succeeds for a time, but the final outcome has always been a complete confirmation of the truth of the Greek myth of Phaëthon , who, because he knew himself to be the son of Apollo, the immediate fruit of the higher education, thought himself capable of being the ruler of light and driving the chariot of the sun. ”

“ When they heard that their friends were foiled, they sent a messenger to Phaethon to renew the fight: whereupon they set themselves in array, and fell upon the Selenitans or the Moon soldiers that were troubled, and disordered in following the chase, and scattered in gathering the spoils, and put them all to flight, and pursued the king into his city, and killed the greatest part of his birds, overturned the trophies he had set up, and overcame the whole country that was spun by the spiders. ”

“ How can you manage these ungovernable fire steeds which I can hardly bridle, so great is their strength? Therefore, oh son, abandon your wish. There are so many things in heaven and earth better worth the asking which I can give you. The granting of your wish means your destruction.”
43
The deity’s warnings were useless. Phaëthon repeated his request. As Apollo was bound by his vow, he led the youth to the sun-chariot, which was a gift from Hephaestus. The axles were golden, as well as the shafts and the rims of the wheels, but the spokes were of solid silver. ”

“ Phaethon and his people held two assemblies; on the first day they did not lay aside a particle of their anger, but on the second day they softened, and the peace was made on these terms: [14]
On the following conditions the Sunites and their allies make peace with the Moonites and their allies, to wit:
That the Sunites tear down the dividing-wall and do not invade the moon again, and that they make over the prisoners of war, each at a set ransom;
That the Moonites permit the stars to be autonomous, and do not make war on the Sunites;
That each country aid the other if it be attacked ”

“ Phaëthon driving Apollo’s Chariot.
Sometimes they came so near the earth that the leaves [Pg 130] and grass withered, the crops were all destroyed, and the streams disappeared. Then they turned so far away that snow fell, and the people shivered and suffered from the cold.
All the people on earth were afraid, and even the gods on high Olympus wondered what was amiss with Apollo, that his horses were so unruly.
Finally Jupiter looked over the heavens, and, seeing the reckless Phaëthon, hurled a thunderbolt at him, and he fell headlong into the river Po. ”

“ By this we are to understand, that people of this denomination were in antient times his priests. One part of the world, where this notion about swans prevailed, was in Liguria, upon the banks of the Eridanus. Here Phaëthon was supposed to have met with his downfal; and here his brother Cycnus underwent the metamorphosis, of which we have spoken. In these parts some Amonians settled very early; among whom it appears that there were many from Canaan. They may be traced by the mighty works which they carried on ”

“ S. “Without the Pythia’s help, I should say. But, tell me—We agree that Zeus’s conception of his own justice will be exactly commensurate with his justice?”
A. “We do.”
S. “But man’s conception thereof, it has been agreed, would be certainly less perfect than Zeus’s?”
A. “It would.”
S. “Man, then, it seems, would always conceive God to be less just than God conceives himself to be?”
A. “He would.”
S. “And therefore to be less just, according to the argument, than he really is?” ”

“ Here we have the burning of the world involved in the myth of Phaëton, son of Phœbus--Apollo--the Sun--who drives the chariot of his father; he can not control the horses of the Sun, they run away with him; they come so near the earth as to set it on fire, and Phaëton is at last killed by Jove, as he killed Typhon in the Greek legends, to save heaven and earth from complete and common ruin. ”

“ Then, from his hand, Zeus cast the bolt, and the chariot was dashed into fragments, and Phaeton, his golden hair ablaze, fell, like a bright shooting star, from the heavens above, into the river Eridanus. The steeds returned to their master, Apollo, and in rage and grief Apollo lashed them. Angrily, too, and very rebelliously did he speak of the punishment meted to his son by the ruler of the Immortals. Yet in truth the punishment was a merciful one. Phaeton was only half a god, and no human life were fit to live after the day of dire anguish that had been his. ”

“ A fiery and high-spirited youth, Phaeton could not brook the taunts of his playmate Epaphus, who claimed divine descent from Isis. When Phaeton boasted that his father was Ph [oe] bus the Sun-god, Epaphus only laughed and called him a base-born pretender. So one day Phaeton, stung to madness by these taunts, went boldly to his mother Clymené and demanded that she should give him some clear proof that he was indeed, as she averred, the very son of Phœbus. ”

“ Earth, overcome with heat and thirst, could say no more. Then Zeus, calling the gods to witness that all was lost unless some speedy remedy were applied, thundered, brandished a lightning-bolt in his right hand, launched it against the charioteer, and struck him at the same moment from his seat [153] and from existence. Phaëton with his hair on fire, fell headlong like a shooting star which marks the heavens with its brightness as it falls, and Eridanus, the great river, received him and cooled his burning frame. ”

“ EXPLANATION. If we were to regard this fable solely as an allegory intended to convey 58 II. 304-310 a moral, we should at once perceive that the adventure of Phaëton represents the wilful folly of a rash young man, who consults his own inclination, rather than the dictates of wisdom and prudence. Some ancient writers tell us that Phaëton was the son of Phœbus and Clymene, while others make the nymph Rhoda to have been his mother. Apollodorus, following Hesiod, says that Hersa, the daughter of Cecrops, king of Athens, was the mother of Cephalus, who was carried away by Aurora ”