Phaeton (Pha´eton). A son of Sol, or, according to many mythologists, of Phoebus and Clymene. Anxious to display his skill in horsemanship, he was allowed to drive the chariot of the sun for one day. The horses soon found out the incapacity of the charioteer, became unmanageable, and overturned the chariot. There was such great fear of injury to heaven and earth, that Jove, to stop the destruction, killed Phaeton with a thunderbolt.
“Now Phaeton, by lofty hopes possessed,
The burning seat with youthful vigor pressed.”
“The breathless Phaeton, with flaming hair,
Shot from the chariot like a falling star
That in a summer’s evening from the top
Of heaven drops down, or seems at least to drop.”
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