Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Phaethon.
The gallery
The Fall of Phaeton
Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1604–1605
Rubens hurls Phaethon from the sun-chariot as Zeus' thunderbolts split the sky — horses, Hours, and seasons thrown into chaos with the boy who could not hold the reins. Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Phaeton
Gustave Moreau, 1878
Moreau's watercolour plunges Phaethon through a jewelled abyss of horses and stars — the fatal ride as Symbolist catastrophe. Watercolour on paper; Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris.
Phaeton
Odilon Redon, c. 1900
Redon isolates Phaethon's fall in a dreamlike swirl of horse and youth — hubris behind the sun-wheel reduced to a single, vertiginous vision.
Helios and Phaeton with Saturn and the Four Seasons
Nicolas Poussin, c. 1629–1630
Poussin stages the petition before the fall: Phaethon before Helios amid Saturn and the Seasons — the fatal request that will burn the world. Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.
The Fall of Phaëton
George Stubbs, 1777
Stubbs, the anatomist of horses, paints Phaethon's team thrashing as the chariot breaks — the sun-ride as equine panic and mortal overreach. Oil on canvas, National Trust, Saltram House.
In music & on stage
In play
Phaeton (carriage)
The open sport carriage took Phaethon's name — a vehicle named for the boy who could not hold the reins of the sun.
Phaethon
Phaethon endures as the emblem of hubris behind the wheel — the mortal who demanded his father's chariot and burned the world.