Editing Helios (section)

=== Phaethon ===
{{Main|Phaethon}}

[[File:Clymene Urging Phaeton to Find Helios LACMA M.71.76.20.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|''Clymene urges Phaethon to find his father'', 1589 engraving by [[Hendrik Goltzius]].]]

The most well known story about Helios is the one involving his son [[Phaethon]], who asked him to drive his chariot for a single day. Although all versions agree that Phaethon convinced Helios to give him his chariot, and that he failed in his task with disastrous results, there are a great number of details that vary by version, including the identity of Phaethon's mother, the location the story takes place, the role Phaethon's sisters the [[Heliades]] play, the motivation behind Phaethon's decision to ask his father for such thing, and even the exact relation between god and mortal.

Traditionally, Phaethon was Helios' son by the Oceanid nymph [[Clymene (mother of Phaethon)|Clymene]],<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]''; [[Euripides]], ''[https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.325.xml Phaethon]''; [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]''; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#152A 152A]</ref> or alternatively Rhode<ref name=":pin">[[Scholia]] on [[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg5026/tlg007/First1K-grc1/2.17.1-2.17.3 17.208] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921010912/https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg5026/tlg007/First1K-grc1/2.17.1-2.17.3 |date=2021-09-21 }}</ref> or the otherwise unknown Prote.<ref>[[John Tzetzes]], ''Chiliades'' 4.127</ref> In one version of the story, Phaethon is Helios' grandson, rather than son, through the boy's father [[Clymenus]]. In this version, Phaethon's mother is an Oceanid nymph named Merope.<ref name=":fb154">[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#154 154]</ref>

In Euripides' lost play ''[[Phaethon (play)|Phaethon]]'', surviving only in twelve fragments, Phaethon is the product of an illicit liaison between his mother Clymene (who is now married to [[Merops (mythology)|Merops]], the king of [[Aethiopia]]) and Helios, though she claimed that her lawful husband was the father of her all her children.<ref>Gantz, pp [https://www.academia.edu/29883249/GANTZ_Timothy_Early_Greek_myth_a_guide_to_literary_and_artistic_sources_Johns_Hopkins_University_Press_1993_ 31–32] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924025153/https://www.academia.edu/29883249/GANTZ_Timothy_Early_Greek_myth_a_guide_to_literary_and_artistic_sources_Johns_Hopkins_University_Press_1993_ |date=2023-09-24 }}</ref><ref>Diggle, pp [https://books.google.com/books?id=RYAh8dv18lUC&pg=PA7 7–8]</ref> Clymene reveals the truth to her son, and urges him to travel east to get confirmation from his father after she informs him that Helios promised to grant their child any wish when he slept with her. Although reluctant at first, Phaethon is convinced and sets on to find his birth father.<ref>Cod. Claromont. - Pap. Berl. 9771, [[Euripides]] fragment [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.335.xml 773 Nauck]</ref> In a surviving fragment from the play, Helios accompanies his son in his ill-fated journey in the skies, trying to give him instructions on how to drive the chariot while he rides on a spare horse named Sirius,<ref name=":dig138" /> as someone, perhaps a [[paedagogi|paedagogus]] informs Clymene of Phaethon's fate, who is probably accompanied by slave women:

[[File:Ovide - Métamorphoses - I - Phaéton.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.05|''Phaethon meets the Sun'', engraving for the ''[[Metamorphoses]]''.]]

{{Blockquote|Take, for instance, that passage in which Helios, in handing the reins to his son, says—<br />
<blockquote>
"Drive on, but shun the burning [[Ancient Libya|Libyan]] tract;<br />
The hot dry air will let thine axle down:<br />
Toward the seven [[Pleiades]] keep thy steadfast way."<br />
</blockquote>
And then—<br />
<blockquote>
"This said, his son undaunted snatched the reins,<br />
Then smote the winged coursers' sides: they bound<br />
Forth on the void and cavernous vault of air.<br />
His father mounts another steed, and rides<br />
With warning voice guiding his son. 'Drive there!<br />
Turn, turn thy car this way."
</blockquote>
|title=[[Euripides]], ''Phaethon'' frag [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.349.xml?readMode=verso 779]<ref>Longinus, ''[[On the Sublime]]'' [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17957/17957-h/17957-h.htm#tag_35 15.4], with a translation by H. L. Havell.</ref>}}

If this 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]] described.<ref>Diggle, pp [https://books.google.com/books?id=RYAh8dv18lUC&pg=PA42 42–43]</ref> Phaethon inevitably dies; a fragment near the end of the play has Clymene order the slave girls hide Phaethon's still-smouldering body from Merops, and laments Helios' role in her son's death, saying he destroyed him and her both.<ref name=":frag" /> Near the end of the play it seems that Merops, having found out about Clymene's affair and Phaethon's true parentage, tries to kill her; her eventual fate is unclear, but it has been suggested she is saved by some [[deus ex machina]].<ref name=":cocro">Collard and Cropp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uT78DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 202]</ref> A number of deities have been proposed for the identity of this possible deus ex machina, with Helios among them.<ref name=":cocro" />

[[File:Nicolas Poussin - Helios and Phaeton with Saturn and the Four Seasons.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|left|''Helios and Phaethon with Saturn and the Four Seasons'', by [[Nicolas Poussin]], oil on canvas]]

In Ovid's account, Zeus' son [[Epaphus]] mocks Phaethon's claim that he is the son of the sun god; his mother Clymene tells Phaethon to go to Helios himself, to ask for confirmation of his paternity. Helios promises him on the river [[Styx]] any gift that he might ask as a proof of paternity; Phaethon asks for the privilege to drive Helios' chariot for a single day. Although Helios warns his son of how dangerous and disastrous this would be, he is nevertheless unable to change Phaethon's mind or revoke his promise. Phaethon takes the reins, and the earth burns when he travels too low, and freezes when he takes the chariot too high. Zeus strikes Phaethon with lightning, killing him. Helios refuses to resume his job, but he returns to his task and duty at the appeal of the other gods, as well as Zeus' threats. He then takes his anger out on his four horses, whipping them in fury for causing his son's death.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph.php#anchor_Toc64105482 1.747]–[https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph2.php#anchor_Toc64106101 2.400]</ref>

[[Nonnus]] of [[Panopolis]] presented a slightly different version of the myth, narrated by Hermes; according to him, Helios met and fell in love with Clymene, the daughter of the [[Oceanus|Ocean]], and the two soon got married with her father's blessing. When he grows up, fascinated with his father's job, he asks him to drive his chariot for a single day. Helios does his best to dissuade him, arguing that sons are not necessarily fit to step into their fathers' shoes. But under pressure of Phaethon and Clymene's begging both, he eventually gives in. As per all other versions of the myth, Phaethon's ride is catastrophic and ends in his death.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca03nonnuoft/page/102/mode/2up?view=theater 38.142]–[https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca03nonnuoft/page/122/mode/2up?view=theater 435]</ref>

[[File:Godfried Maes - Phaeton in the Chariot of the Sun God.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|Phaethon in the chariot of the Sun, Godfried Maes, ca 1664-1700]]

Hyginus wrote that Phaethon secretly mounted his father's car without said father's knowledge and leave, but with the aid of his sisters the Heliades who yoked the horses.<ref>Gantz, p. [https://archive.org/details/early-greek-myth-a-guide-timothy-gantz/page/32/mode/2up?view=theater 33]</ref>

In all retellings, Helios recovers the reins in time, thus saving the earth.<ref>Bell, s. v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/150/mode/2up?view=theater Phaethon]</ref> Another consistent detail across versions are that Phaethon's sisters the Heliades mourn him by the [[Eridanos (river of Hades)|Eridanus]] and are turned into black poplar trees, who shed tears of [[amber]]. According to [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], it was Helios who turned them into trees, for their honour to Phaethon.<ref>[[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], ''[[Posthomerica]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=KiDDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT134 5.300], "The Daughters of the Sun, the Lord of Omens, shed (tears) for Phaethon slain, when by Eridanos' flood they mourned for him. These, for undying honour to his son, the god made amber, precious in men's eyes."</ref> In one version of the myth, Helios conveyed his dead son to the stars, as a constellation (the [[Auriga (constellation)|Auriga]]).<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''De astronomia'' [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.42.2 2.42.2]</ref>