Jesse Humphries

Tyler Craddock

Period 1

Summary:      

Phaethon is a mythological story that takes place “long ago when the Earth was very new”.  The crisis of the story begins when Phaethon is taunted by another young man in his village, Epaphus.  Epaphus doesn’t believe that the Greek god, Apollo, is Phaethon’s father even though Phaethon says he is.  The young and impulsive Phaethon wants to prove to everyone in his village that Apollo is his real dad, so he sets off to Apollo’s palace in the east.  After a long journey, father and son finally meet.  Phaethon tells his father about his confrontation with Epaphus and Apollo says, “What is it you wish?  I will do anything in my power to help you.”  What Phaethon wants is to drive the sun chariot by himself for one day.  Without knowing his son’s real plan which is to circle over Epaphus’ house, Apollo agrees, but gives his son certain rules to follow while driving the four massive horses.  The resolution of story happens when, unfortunately, Phaethon doesn’t follow his father’s rules and loses control of the chariot.  He gets too low in the sky and the Earth and its inhabitants burn up in flames; he gets to high in the sky and the Earth freezes.  Epaphus’ father, Zeus, sees the havoc caused on Earth and throws a lightning bolt at the sun chariot’s driver who he notices is not Apollo.  Phaethon is killed instantly, leaving behind still frozen ice caps and rumbling volcanoes trying to spit out the fire.

      The point of view of “Phaethon” is told from a third-person limited perspective because Phaethon’s feelings and expressions are the only ones described.

      The conflicts in this short story are struggles between two people, struggle between Phaethon and himself, and a problem to be solved.  The struggle between two people would be Phaethon versus Epaphus because Phaethon must prove that his father is the sun god, Apollo after being challenged by Epaphus. The problem to be solved is that Phaethon must travel to the palace in the east and convince Apollo that he is his father. Then, he has to drive the sun chariot to prove to Epaphus that Apollo remembers him and later must convince his father to let him drive the sun chariot all by himself.

Character Development-

      In Phaethon, it is somewhat difficult to analyze the character development since Phaethon died for his mistakes and his development had never really changed. If Zeus hadn’t killed him with the lightning bolt at the end of the story, Phaethon would have had a greater sense of responsibility and maybe matured. If he had landed after causing chaos on Earth, he would have been punished and learned his lesson, therefore having a greater sense of responsibility.

Themes

1. Boastful- In Phaethon, if Phaethon was less boastful during his confrontation with Epaphus, he wouldn’t have had to take on the challenge of finding his father and convincing Apollo to let him drive the sun chariot. Instead, Phaethon had to prove to Epaphus that he was wrong.

2. Responsibility- Phaethon showed a lack of responsibility. Apollo allowed him to drive the sun chariot. Phaethon disobeyed Apollo’s rules and misused the sun chariot causing disastrous results on Earth. “Down,” he cried. “Down! Down!” The horses plunged through the bright air, golden hooves twinkling, golden manes flying, dragging the great glittering chariot after them in a long flaming swoop. When they reached his village, he was horrified to see the roofs burning into fire.” Instead of staying in the middle path, Phaethon dipped down close to Earth to show Epaphus that he was driving the sun chariot.

3. Impulsiveness- Phaethon showed a lot of impulsive behavior throughout the story. If he had thought out what he was doing before he disobeyed rules and let the chariot go out of control, maybe the disasters on Earth and his own death could have been prevented.