But the son, exulting with joy, gathered up the reins, and taking leave of his disconsolate father, boldly drove off.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE DEATH OF PHAETHON
The horses darted forward to their long race, and their first few leaps brought them above the highest mountains. Before the eyes of the youth the whole extent of land and sea lay outstretched.
The deer already had left their shelters and gone up on the heights. All nature seemed to awake. The quiet woods resounded with the songs of the birds, which seemed to greet the rising sun. Glittering dewdrops hung on the leaves and flowers and shone like diamonds with the light of Helios. Hares and rabbits left their hiding-places and came forth for food. Bees flew humming from flower to flower, gathering their precious sweets. The shepherd led forth his bleating flocks into the green pastures, the farmer plodded off into the fields with his rural tools. Smoke began to rise from the cottage chimneys.
Only the owls and other night-birds, unable to bear the light of the sun, flew back to their lonely hiding-places, and a few timid flowers closed their petals, but the sun-flowers turned their faces with joy toward the rising sun. Phaethon was entranced by the sight of the glorious beauty of awakening nature.
The horses soon perceived that they were not held by the powerful hands of Helios; they also felt that they were not drawing their accustomed burden, and as a ship that does not carry the necessary ballast is tossed about by the waves, so the chariot was jolted through the air, rising and falling as if it were empty.
The horses strayed from their path. Phaethon tried to rein them in. He did not know the way and was not strong enough to curb the restive steeds. They ran this way and that, to right and left, under the uncertain guidance of their new driver.
On they flew. They were near the middle of the sky where the road was steepest. Phaethon looked down from the tremendous height upon the earth. He became dizzy; his hands trembled and his knees knocked together. He let the reins go loose; the horses darted forward like arrows. He pulled them back, and they plunged and stood on their hind feet. He wanted to speak to them, but he did not know their names.
Overcome at last by fear, he threw the reins down on the backs of the horses and clung to the chariot. Having no guidance whatever the horses now started on a wild race. They approached the earth and turned everything into a desert; woods and meadows, cities and villages were burnt to ashes. The rivers were dried up and the sea was boiling.