S1E2 - Phaethon and the Sun Chariot

The stories featured in Greaking Out are original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This episode contains teenage recklessness, children not listening to their parents, serious sunburns, and making promises you have to keep, even though it's a bad idea.

Enjoy!

Breaking out, gods and heroes, amazing feats.

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Imagine that your mom or dad had the coolest job in the world.

The kind of job where everybody knew them and everybody saw them practically every day.

But imagine that you never got to see them.

They're your parent.

They're super famous and you've never even met them.

That's how things started out for Faithon.

You see, Faithon was the child of the sun god Helios and a mortal woman named Climene.

He lived with his mother because his dad had a really difficult and important job.

Helios had to get up every morning and drive the sun chariot from one side of the earth to the other during the daytime.

Yep, his dad was basically responsible for daylight.

In fact, his name, Faithon, actually means shining.

Helios and Apollo are often confused for each other.

Helios was the son of of Titans Hyperion and Theia, and the god of the sun who drove the chariot across the sky every day.

Apollo was god of light and the son of Zeus and Leto and brother of Artemis.

But even the ancient Greeks lumped them together, calling Apollo Apollo Helios.

For the most part, Phaethan was a normal Peloponnesian kid.

He liked sports a lot, was okay in school, wore his chitin pulled down on the back like all the cool kids, but every once in a while, he would start to feel awkward about not having a normal dad.

Career Day was the worst.

Climeni told her son not to go bragging about his dad being a god, especially the sun god, because it would only lead to trouble, but you know how it is.

Iphigenia Costos was always going on about how her dad was an important senator, and Leonardo Sinus had a father who was a soldier who got to hold the shield in the front of the phalanx.

The phalanx was a military formation used by Greek soldiers in battle.

It was a close-rank, dense grouping of warriors armed with long spears and interlocking shields.

Faithon thought he would burst if he had to hear the other kids brag any longer, so one day it just slipped out.

My dad is Helios.

He drives the sun across the sky.

Can you imagine saying that in the lunchroom?

Casually mentioning that your dad lights the world while while you're opening your juice pouch?

Well, as you might expect, it did not go over well.

No one believed Faithon.

Some kids thought he was joking.

Others thought he was making it up to seem cool, but nobody, not even his closest friends, thought Faithon's father was really the god of daylight.

When Faithon got home from school that day, his mother saw how upset he was and she felt bad.

Climenia assured Faithon that he really was the son of Helios, and she sent word to the god, and they both decided that it was time for father and son to meet.

And so the next day, a delighted and hopeful Faithon began his journey to the east, traveling all the way to the palace of his father, who was supposed to begin his everyday course from the east.

In Greek mythology, the palace of Helios was believed to be located in what we now know as the subcontinent of India.

When he finally reached the palace of Helios, Phaeton was amazed by its magnificence and luxury.

Everything was glittering and shining.

And as he slowly made his way through the palace, Faithon was almost blinded by the dazzle of light around him.

The ceilings and doors were made of polished ivory and silver, and the entire palace was supported by massive columns adorned with glittering gold and precious stones.

The ancient Greeks were wonderful architects.

They invented three types of columns to support support their buildings.

There was the stylish Doric, the Ionic with its scrolls, and the decorative Corinthian.

Each was beautiful in its own way.

There was this amazing mural on the walls of the palace that showed all of the earth, the sea, and the sky.

This place was beyond fancy.

Faithon couldn't believe that his father actually lived here.

Eventually, Faithon was guided into the throne room where he came face to face with his father for the first time.

Helios was seated on a diamond-studded throne and surrounded by servants and attendants.

These included a young girl who was called Day, a grown woman named Month, an old crone who was called Year, and a giggling active toddler they called Hour.

Faithon wasn't sure what to do before all this splendor, so he bowed low before the throne and looked up nervously at his father.

Speaking of his father, take a second to imagine how Helios is feeling at this moment.

He's sitting on this tricked out throne with his servants and his bling and everything, but none of that matters because for the first time, he's going to meet his son.

And believe it or not, he's almost as nervous as Faithon.

He understands that things were hard for Faithon and he really wants to make a good impression.

So there they are, nervous father meeting nervous son.

Even with all of the dazzling diamonds, painted ceilings, and shining gold columns, it was, was,

well,

awkward.

They talked about the weather, and about Faithon's classes at school, and how Faithon's mother was doing.

And then Helios asked his son about his friends at school.

Well, after some hemming and hawing, Faithon told Helios about the humiliation he had to suffer because no one really believed that his father was the sun god.

He told him about Iphigenia Costos and Leonidas Zinus and the phalanx.

He told him about how no one believed him when he said who his father was.

He left out the part about the juice pouch, but otherwise, he told him everything.

And Helios was really moved.

He felt sad for his son, and maybe more than a little guilty about not being there as his son grew up.

So he declared right there that all the world would recognize Phaethan as the son of Helios.

firmly and legitimately establishing them as father and son.

Once a declaration like this was made by a god, it was indisputable.

Mortals had no choice but to accept it and move on.

It's like the god equivalent of, because I said so.

Helios went on and declared in the presence of all his attendants that he would gladly grant his son any favor that he would ask of him.

This turned out to be a very bad idea.

Like, epically bad.

But first, a word from our sponsor.

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Faithon was grateful and relieved to finally be able to tell people who he really was, but he wanted more.

He wanted to show off a little bit.

He wanted to make his friends jealous.

As impressive as all of his father's wealth and power was, Faithon believed there was only one thing that would really say, son of Helios, the sun god, to everyone who saw him.

Father,

I want to drive the chariot of the sun.

Helios was speechless.

Just for one day, I want to drive the sun across the sky so my mother and my friends and all who know me can see me for who I truly am.

A chariot is a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle used in ancient warfare and racing.

The riders would stand in the chariot itself and be pulled along by one or two horses.

In this case, the chariot of the sun would be similar, but it would likely be shiny and glowing and pulled by massive, magical horses that were on fire.

Now I can remember when I was a kid asking my dad if I could drive the car and getting to sit on his lap in the driveway making vroom, vroom, vroom noises.

You need to understand that this is nothing like that.

Even the mighty Zeus could not presume to drive the sun chariot, much less a mere mortal.

It was a job that only Helios could do.

Not to mention, it was a huge responsibility.

If Helios didn't take the sun chariot across the sky every day, the earth would be without sunlight.

Helios tried his best to explain that to his son, but Faithon wasn't having any of it.

Helios tried the old change-the-subject routine and surprised Faithon by introducing him to his seven daughters who were all nymphs.

Faithon always thought he was an only child and now he had seven sisters.

Their names were Meropi, Heli, Aegli, Lampedia, Faithusa, Aitheri, Deoxype, and Doc.

Okay, I was kidding about the last one, but let's just call them all the Heliades because that's what everyone else did.

Faithon was truly charmed by his new sisters, but even they couldn't change his mind.

His father had promised him any favor, and he wanted to drive the sun chariot.

The nymphs were minor nature goddesses who lived on earth.

They presided over various natural phenomena from springs to clouds, trees, caverns, meadows, and beaches.

Although they were ranked below the gods, the nymphs were still summoned to attend the assemblies of the gods on Olympus.

Helios appealed to his court for help.

Did he truly have to agree to such an outrageous request?

He brought them all together.

Spring in a gown made of flowers.

Summer with a necklace of spear-like ripened grains.

Autumn with feet red from grape juice.

And winter with frost in his hair.

All of them told Helios what he already knew and feared.

Once the gods promise a favor, they cannot withdraw or deny it.

A promise is a promise.

It's like a pinky swear times a million.

And so the next morning, Faithon got to drive the Sun Chariot.

Helios prepared him as much as possible.

The horses that pulled the Sun Chariot were fiery and hard to control, so he told Faithon to just steer the chariot through a middle course and not to go too high or too low.

To make sure the horses would respect their new driver, Helios painted an expression of power and arrogance on his son's face.

As soon as he took flight, Faithon realized this was a mistake.

The chariot of the sun was way more than he could handle.

He just could not control the fiery horses and once they realized this, they began to run wild.

They ran so high in the sky that they crashed into the stars and created a spiral gash in the night sky that we now call the Milky Way.

Then they flew so low over the earth that they burned the African continent and turned much of it into the desert that we know today today as the Sahara.

About one-third of the African continent is considered to be a desert or semi-desert, and most of that is the Sahara.

By this point, all of the gods on Olympus had seen what was happening.

Fearing that it would get worse, Zeus had to put a stop to things.

So he brought out his mighty thunderbolts and hurled them at the chariot of the sun to bring it down, sending Phaethan and the flaming horses crashing into the Eridanus river faithon's sisters the heliadis were so saddened by his death that they asked the gods to transform them into poplar trees along the banks of the river so they could stand by and protect their brother for always

to commemorate faithon the gods placed him among the stars where he became the constellation we know today as auriga or the charioteer

thanks for listening to this week's episode of creaking out stay tuned for next week's episode about monsters of the ancient world.

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the Oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam.

Jennifer Emmett is EVP of Kids Content at National Geographic, and Kate Hale edits Zeus the Mighty.

Diane Klein is our fact-checker, and Perry Gripp composed our themes.

Emily Everhart is our production manager.