The story of Phaethon is taken by permission
from Gayley's _Classic Myths in English
Literature and Art_. (Copyright. Ginn & Co.,
Boston.) Gayley is by all odds the one handbook
for the whole field of mythology that teachers
should always have access to. Based upon the
older Bulfinch, it brings the whole subject up
to date and reflects all the results of later
scholarship on the matters of origins and
interpretations. Its bibliographies and
extended commentaries make it invaluable. The
story of Phaethon is usually thought of as a
warning against presumption, conceit, whim,
self-will. It was probably invented in the
first place to account for the extremely hot
weather of the summer months.

PHAETHON

CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY

Phaethon was the son of Apollo and the nymph Clymene. One day Epaphus,
the son of Jupiter and Io, scoffed at the idea of Phaethon's being the
son of a god. Phaethon complained of the insult to his mother Clymene.
She sent him to Phoebus to ask for himself whether he had not been truly
informed concerning his parentage. Gladly Phaethon traveled toward the
regions of sunrise and gained at last the palace of the sun. He
approached his father's presence, but stopped at a distance, for the
light was more than he could bear.

Phoebus Apollo, arrayed in purple, sat on a throne that glittered with
diamonds. Beside him stood the Day, the Month, the Year, the Hours, and
the Seasons. Surrounded by these attendants, the Sun beheld the youth
dazzled with the novelty and splendor of the scene, and inquired the
purpose of his errand. The youth replied, "Oh, light of the boundless
world, Phoebus, my father--if thou dost yield me that name--give me some
proof, I beseech thee, by which I may be known as thine!"

He ceased. His father, laying aside the beams that shone around his
head, bade him approach, embraced him, owned him for his son, and swore
by the river Styx that whatever proof he might ask should be granted.
Phaethon immediately asked to be permitted for one day to drive the
chariot of the sun. The father repented of his promise and tried to
dissuade the boy by telling him the perils of the undertaking. "None but
myself," he said, "may drive the flaming car of day. Not even Jupiter,
whose terrible right arm hurls the thunderbolts. The first part of the
way is steep and such as the h