Phaethon

Phaethon claimed that Helios was his father, but Epaphus mocked him and called his parentage false. Angered and ashamed, Phaethon went to Clymene and demanded proof of his divine birth. She called the Sun to witness her truth and told him to seek Helios in the land where the Sun rises. Phaethon travelled to India and found Helios. He asked the god to acknowledge him as his son, then persuaded him to let him drive the solar chariot.

Phaethon took the reins, but he could not control the horses. They rushed away from their proper course, and he drove without knowing where he was going. The chariot scorched the earth. Mountains and forests burned, including the Caucasus, Ossa, Pindus, Olympus, the Alps, and the Apennines. Springs became steam, rivers shrank, and the air around Phaethon grew like the air of a furnace. Thick smoke filled the sky. It was said that the people of Ethiopia became black when the heat forced their blood to the surface, while the Libyan desert dried into the state it retained afterwards.

The river nymphs mourned their failing waters. Tanais, Caicus, Xanthus, Meander, Euphrates, Ganges, Tagus, and Caÿster smoked. The Nile fled and hid its head in the desert. The flames spread through valleys and forests, and the snows of Rhodope melted. Earth could endure no more. She cried out to the ruler of the gods, warning that sea, land, and heaven would perish and that the world would fall back into Chaos. The poles supporting the heavens smoked, and Atlas struggled beneath his burden.

Zeus saw that the world had to be saved. He seized his thunderbolt and hurled it at Phaethon. The bolt killed him and shattered the chariot. The maddened horses rushed down into the sea, while Phaethon, burning, fell through the air towards the earth.