Helios, the sun god, drove a four-horse chariot across the sky each day. He rose from a palace in the east and flew to another in the west. Each night, with his team and chariot, he boarded a golden ferry to sail home.

Helios had a mortal son named Phaeton. When the boy was taunted for claiming the god as his father, Phaeton asked Helios for proof of his parentage. In response, Helios promised Phaeton anything he wanted. Phaeton's request was to drive his father’s chariot. Although Helios realized that the boy lacked the strength and skill to control the horses, the promise had been made. With dread, Helios handed over the reins.

When Phaeton set out, the horses veered, first heavenward, cutting the swath of the Milky Way, then fell to earth. The blazing chariot scorched the earth creating deserts. The earth’s very future was threatened. Zeus, the king of the gods, was called to intervene. He hurled a thunderbolt at the chariot, sending it in a fiery plunge to earth. The nymphs who recovered Phaeton’s body were so bereft that they became trees and wept over him. Their tears became amber, the fossilized resin of trees.

Peter Paul Rubens was the most sought-after painter in northern Europe during the early seventeenth century. His rich colors, energetic brushwork, and lively compositions epitomize the exuberance of baroque art. Dominated by restless motion, his dynamic and emotional style is created through strong contrasts of color and light. The son of a lawyer, Rubens was a noted linguist and scholar, well schooled in ancient history and classical languages. He served the courts of Europe not only as a painter, but also as a diplomat, sometimes carrying out delicate negotiations while working on foreign commissions.

Rubens painted The Fall of Phaeton while he was studying in Italy from 1600 to 1608. He sketched a famous battle scene painted by Leonardo da Vinci and used some of the horses in it as models for his own painting.

Discussion Questions:

• What moment of the story has Rubens depicted? (The moment when Zeus’ thunderbolt streaks in from the right and horses and Phaeton plummet to the fiery earth.) What happened in the story leading up to this moment? What will happen next?
• How did the artist use color and line to make this painting look so dramatic? (There isn’t one calm horizontal or vertical line. All are diagonal to show action. Every figure and line is in motion, twisting and thrusting out diagonally. The strong contrast of highlights—on the horses, in the sky, and on the figure of Phaeton in the right foreground—and shadows throws the action into high relief and creates drama.)
• What natural phenomena does the story explain? (The origins of the Milky Way, deserts, and amber.)
• Rubens painted butterfly-winged figures to symbolize the hours and the seasons. Why might they be reacting in terror to the chaos they see? (The normal patterns of day and night, sunrise and sunset, even the seasons, are threatened.)
• Helios made a promise, and usually promises should be kept. If you were Helios, would you have kept your promise and allowed Phaeton to drive the chariot knowing what would happen to him and to the entire earth? Why or why not? How would you describe Phaeton’s personality in insisting on driving the chariot? If you were Phaeton, would you have made the same choice? Why or why not?