Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

154 THE LEGENDS.

CHAPTER V. THE CONFLAGRATION OF PHAETON.

Now let us turn to the mythology of the Latins, as preserved in the pages of Ovid, one of the greatest of the poets of ancient Rome.*

Here we have the burning of the world involved in the myth of Phaéton, son of Phabus—Apollo—the Sunwho drives the chariot of his father ; he can not control the horses of the Sun, they rm away with him; they come so near the earth as to set it on fire, and Phaéton is at last killed by Jove, as he killed Typhon in the Greek legends, to save heaven and earth from complete and common ruin.

This is the story of the conflagration as treated by a civilized mind, explained by a myth, and decorated with the flowers and foliage of poetry.

We shall see many things in the narrative of Ovid which strikingly confirm our theory.

Phaéton, to prove that he is really the son of Phebns, the Sun, demands of his parent the right to drive his chariot for one day. The sun-god reluctantly consents, not without many pleadings that the infatuated and rash boy would give up his inconsiderate ambition. Phaéton persists. The old man says :

“Even the ruler of vast Olympus, who hurls the ruthless bolts with his terrific right hand, can not guide

* “The Metamorphoses,” book xi, fable 1.