Storytelling: World Aflame (Week 3)

Phaethon by Hendrick Goltzius

Gods and goddesses should never swear by the River Styx.  Never.  Especially when they don’t know exactly what they are promising.  One might be curious as to why I feel so strongly about this.  I shall tell you.  In all truthfulness, I had never given much thought toward the doings of the gods.  They were on Olympus.  They had their duties and lives, and I had mine.  I liked it that way and the gods didn’t seem to mind either.  Unfortunately, I was fated to bear witness to an extraordinary happening.

It is widely known that the gods and goddess are not often largely involved in the lives of their offspring, not in the way mortals are.  Some gods, however, do carry affection for their children and do try to show it in whatever manner they may.  Phoebus Apollo is one such god.  Clymene, the oceanid, bore him a son whose name was Phaethon.  When Phaethon’s parentage was questioned, he set out on a quest to prove his birth.  Upon his entrance to the palace of the Sun, his father knew him right away.  Though Apollo had been absent from his son’s life, he had great love for the boy.  He promised him riches and great fortunes, the likes of which only a god could give.  He promised the boy anything he desired, if it was within his power.  He swore it all by the River Styx. 

The child, foolish in his youth, asked to drive his father’s chariot.  Immediately, the father begged his son to take back his request, to ask for something else, to ask for anything else.  Unfortunately, the son would not rescind his request and the father, as a god of Olympus, was bound to his oath. 

So Apollo tutored Phaethon in the ways of the chariot.  He try to teach him the tamest paths and the surest ways to calm the fiery horses.  He even gifted to him an ointment to protect him from the flames and heat.  Despite Apollo’s instructions, Phaethon was not prepared for the task he had requested.  Even the path his father had pointed out was dangerous.  Phaethon lasted longer than anyone other than Apollo would have.  Eventually, fear struck him and he let go of the reins.  Phaethon had fallen out of the sky. 

The aftermath is what I bore witness to.  The heavens and the earth were both ablaze.  Thank Jupiter my dwelling was far enough from the smoke and flames.  Entire cities and peoples were wiped away with the fire.  The sky was bright.  Brighter, redder, angrier than ever before.  Never more brilliant and never more deadly.  The earth turned black with soot and ash.  Soon, once the horses found their way back, the sky turned black too. 

So great was Apollo’s anguish for his son that he did not return to the sky for some days.  The mortals who managed to escape the flames were subjected to an extended period of darkness, the lengths of which none had known before.  It was fate alone that allowed me to survive the dangerous ordeal.  Soon though, somehow, the sun rose again.

Author's note:

I chose to retell to story of Phaethon through the eyes of someone who witnessed the event but was somewhat removed from it.  I thought about making it from the point of view of Apollo, but I felt like he would have been too close to the story for what I wanted to do.  One of the main reasons that I chose to do it this way is because I was genuinely surprised when I was reading the original.  Apollo seemed to care so much more than some of the other gods that I have read about.  I wanted to capture that.  I hope that using a narrator who wasn't particularly fond of Apollo or Phaethon would help display how good intentions don't always work out that way.  I didn't change much.  I added the narrator, but I kept the rest of the story the same.  The only part of the story that I didn’t go into much detail with is the part about Phaethon’s origins and his time before he went to meet his father.  From the point of view that I was using, it seemed like the narrator wouldn’t have cared so much about his beginnings as he would have cared about the wreckage.

Word: 517

Bibliography:
Ovid's Metamorphoses translated by Tony Kline in 2000.  UnTextbook
Stories;
Phaethon and the Sun
Phaethon's Ride
The Death of Phaeton