''Phaethon'' ( grc, Φαέθων, Phaéthо̄n) is the title of a lost tragedy written by

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

playwright

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

, first produced circa

420 BC __NOTOC__ Year 420 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. The denomination 420 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. ...

, and covered the myth of

Phaethon Phaethon (; grc, Φαέθων, Phaéthōn, ), also spelled Phaëthon, was the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun-god Helios in Greek mythology. According to most authors, Phaethon is the son of Helios, and out of desire to have his par ...

, the young mortal boy who asked his father the

sun god A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The ...

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...

to drive his solar chariot for a single day. The play has been lost, though several fragments of it survive. Another treatment of the myth had been delivered earlier by

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

in his lost play ''

Heliades In Greek mythology, the Heliades (Ancient Greek: Ἡλιάδες means 'daughters of the sun') also called Phaethontides (meaning "daughters of Phaethon") were the daughters of Helios and Clymene, an Oceanid nymph. Names According to one v ...

'' ("daughters of the Sun"), whose content and plot are even more fragmentary and obscure. The influence of Euripides' play on

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's version of the myth can be easily recognized.Diggle, p
7–8
/ref> From this now lost play only twelve fragments remain, covering around 400 lines or so.

Plot

Euripides' version of the myth was set in a mortal landscape, with Phaethon nominally the son of the

Oceanid In Greek mythology, the Oceanids or Oceanides (; grc, Ὠκεανίδες, Ōkeanídes, pl. of grc, Ὠκεανίς, Ōkeanís, label=none) are the nymphs who were the three thousand (a number interpreted as meaning "innumerable") daughters o ...

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

Clymene by her lawful husband and putative father of her children

Merops MEROPS is an online database for peptidases (also known as proteases, proteinases and proteolytic enzymes) and their inhibitors. The classification scheme for peptidases was published by Rawlings & Barrett in 1993, and that for protein inhibitor ...

, king of

Aethiopia Ancient Aethiopia, ( gr, Αἰθιοπία, Aithiopía; also known as Ethiopia) first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the upper Nile region of Sudan, as well as certain areas south of the Sahara desert. It ...

, but in truth her product of an illicit affair with Helios.Gantz, p
31–32
/ref> The play opens with Clymene describing the sunlit country, her marriage to Merops, and her liaison with Helios that produced Phaethon. The conflict presented in the play is the marriage of Phaethon and the boy's reluctance; the bride's identity is one of the most difficult problems of this plot; suggestions include one of the

, his sisters (a suggestion supported by

Henri Weil Henri Weil (August 27, 1818 – November 5, 1909) was a French philologist. Biography Born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, he was educated at the universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Leipzig. He went to France, and continued his studies at Paris, ...

and one that

James Diggle James Diggle, (born 1944) is a British classical scholar. He was Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Cambridge between 1995 and 2011. Early life and education Born in 1944, Diggle was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge; he ...

deemed unprovable, though convinced of that being the case), or even

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...

. Explaining on how Aphrodite could be considered Phaethon's bride,

Wilamowitz Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (22 December 1848 – 25 September 1931) was a German classical philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature ...

suggested that Euripides combined the stories of two Phaethons, that of the son of Helios who drove his father's car and died, and that of

the son of Helios' sister

Eos In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric ''Āṓs'') is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at ...

whom Aphrodite abducted to be a watchman of her shrines, and whom late antiquity writers described as a lover of the goddess. Another explanation is that Aphrodite had planned Phaethon's death from the beginning, as a revenge against his father who revealed her extramarital affair with

Ares Ares (; grc, Ἄρης, ''Árēs'' ) is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war b ...

to her husband

Hephaestus Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter Burk ...

. Perhaps to get her son overcome his reluctance, Clymene revealed to Phaethon his true, divine parentage, and urged him to go travel and find his father to confirm so himself, mentiong that the god had promised to grant one favour back when he slept with her; convinced of the truth of his mother's words, Phaethon agrees to travel and find his biological father. What follows is the ''parodos'', where the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

, made up of the palace's slave girls, describe the dawn and express their enthusiam over Phaethon's upcoming marriage. Then, in the first ''episode'', few lines survive of an argument between Merops and Phaethon. Nothing survives from the first ''stasimon''. Next someone, perhaps a

paedagogus ''Paedagogus'' ( el, Παιδαγωγός, "Pedagogue") is the second in the great trilogy of Clement of Alexandria. Having laid a foundation in the knowledge of divine truth in the first book, he goes on in the ''Paedagogus'' to develop a Chr ...

bringing a message to Clymene, arrived on scene and explained how Phaethon drove his father's chariot while said father rode on a horse named Sirius next to him, trying to guide his son and shouting advice and instructions on how to drive the car at him; due to the play's fragmentary nature, it is not clear whether

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

had a role in Phaethon's demise. If the messenger did witness the flight himself, it is possible there was also a passage where he described Helios taking control over the bolting horses in the same manner as

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

described.Diggle, p
42–43
/ref> Subsequently, the still smoking body of Phaethon is brought on scene, which points to Zeus having indeed struck him with a thunderbolt. Clymene orders the slave girls to hide the body from Merops and laments Helios' role in his demise, noting that he is rightfully called "

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

" (here understood to mean "destroyer") by the mortals who know the gods' true names. The remainder of the plot seems to have revolved around Merops finding the charred corpse and the real parentage of Phaethon. Near the end, Merops, who has now discovered the truth about Phaethon's fatherhood, seems to try to retaliate against Clymene by killing herCollard and Cropp, p
202
/ref> as the chorus advises Clymene to plead with her father, the river god

Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titan son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods a ...

to save her from perishing;Diggle, p
44
/ref> it is unclear whether Clymene survives thanks to an ex machina intervention by a god, as well as that god's exact identity, whether it is Oceanus indeed trying to save his daughter, Helios or even

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

. Diggle suggests that Clymene and Merops were reconciled in the end. Of unknown position in the play is a fragment in which Clymene expresses hatred over the handy horned bow, and youths' pastime exercises, as they remind her of her slain son. At another points she cries that her "best beloved, but now he lies d putrefies in some dark vale".

Other works

In one of the earliest surviving artistic attestations of the myth, a cast taken from an Arretine mould now housed in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

,Which can be see
here
Phaethon is shown falling from the car, while Helios with a spare horse (as Euripides alone described) by his side has caught two horses and is preparing to catch the other two. Several other figures appear, like

holding his thunderbolt, Tethys,

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

and maybe

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

.Gantz, p
34
/ref>

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* Collard Christopher, Cropp Martin, Lee Kevin H.; ''Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays: Volume I,''

Oxbow Books __NOTOC__ An oxbow is a U-shaped metal pole (or larger wooden frame) that fits the underside and the sides of the neck of an ox or bullock. A bow pin holds it in place. The term "oxbow" is widely used to refer to a U-shaped meander in a river, ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, 1995, . * Cook, Arthur Bernard, "Zeus God of the Bright Sky" in ''Zeus: A study in ancient religion'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 1914
Online text available at Internet Archive.
*

, ''Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus. Other Fragments. Edited and translated by Christopher Collard, Martin Cropp.''

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a series of books originally published by Heinemann in London, but is currently published by Harvard University Press. The library contains important works of ancient Greek and L ...

506. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. * Diggle, James, ''Euripides: Phaethon'',

, Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Series Number 12, 1970, . * Gantz, Timothy, ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2). *

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...

, ''

Moralia The ''Moralia'' ( grc, Ἠθικά ''Ethika''; loosely translated as "Morals" or "Matters relating to customs and mores") is a group of manuscripts dating from the 10th–13th centuries, traditionally ascribed to the 1st-century Greek scholar Plu ...

, Volume VII: On Love of Wealth. On Compliancy. On Envy and Hate. On Praising Oneself Inoffensively. On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance. On Fate. On the Sign of Socrates. On Exile. Consolation to His Wife'', translated by Phillip H. De Lacy, Benedict Einarson,

No. 405. Cambridge, Massachusetts,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

, 1959.
Online version at Harvard University Press
*

, ''

, Volume VIII: Table-Talk, Books 1-6'', translated by P. A. Clement, H. B. Hoffleit,

No. 424, Cambridge, Massachusetts,

, 1969.
Online version at Harvard University Press
*

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

, ''The Geography of Strabo.'' Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.

External links

The translation and reconstruction of Euripides' "Phaethon" made by Vlanes is now available as ebook on Amazon.

{{Authority control Plays by Euripides Plays based on classical mythology Lost plays Helios