Definition of Phaethan

Definition of Phaethan

Phaëthon (i. e. the shining one, and so called from his father), the son of Helios (q. v.); persuaded his father to allow him for one day to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens, but was too weak to check the horses, so that they rushed off their wonted track and nearly set the world on fire, whereupon Zeus transfixed him with a thunderbolt, metamorphosed his sisters who had yoked the horses for him into poplars and their tears into amber.

- Wikipedia

Pha"ë*thon (?), n. [L., Phaëthon (in sense 1), fr. Gr. &?;, fr. &?;, &?;, to shine. See Phantom.] 1. (Class. Myth.) The son of Helios (Phœbus), that is, the son of light, or of the sun. He is fabled to have obtained permission to drive the chariot of the sun, in doing which his want of skill would have set the world on fire, had he not been struck with a thunderbolt by Jupiter, and hurled headlong into the river Po.

2. (Zoöl.) A genus of oceanic birds including the tropic birds.

- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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