| Phaethon | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Hendrick_Goltzius_la_chute_de_Pha%C3%A9ton.jpg) Phaethon falls from the chariot, by Hendrick Goltzius, made in 1588 | |
| Written by | Euripides |
| Chorus | Parthenoi, virgin women |
| Characters | Phaethon Clymene Merops Helios ? Messenger |
| Date premiered | c. 420 BC |
| Place premiered | Athens |
| Original language | Ancient Greek |
| Genre | Tragedy |
| Setting | Aethiopia |
Phaethon (Ancient Greek: Φαέθων, romanized: Phaéthо̄n) is the title of a lost tragedy written by Athenian playwright Euripides, first produced circa 420 BC, and covered the myth of Phaethon, the young mortal boy who asked his father the sun god Helios to drive his solar chariot for a single day. The play has been lost, though several fragments of it survive. Another treatment of the myth had been delivered earlier by Aeschylus in his lost play Heliades ("daughters of the Sun"), whose content and plot are even more fragmentary and obscure. The influence of Euripides' play on Ovid's version of the myth can be easily recognized.[1] From this now lost play only twelve fragments remain, covering around 400 lines or so.