Phaethon

Japanese: ファエトン - ふぁえとん(英語表記)Phaethon
Phaethon

Son of the sun god in Greek mythology. His father is usually Helios, but later, for example in Ovid, he is Apollo. In Homer, this name is used as an adjective meaning "shining" to describe the sun. When Phaethon learned his father's name for the first time after he became an adult, he went to visit him at the end of the world. The sun god promised to grant him any wish as proof that he was his father, so Phaethon asked to ride the sun god's chariot. The sun god advised him to wish for something else because of the danger, but in the end he allowed him as promised. Phaethon did not have the strength to control the four horses, so the chariot immediately went off the solar orbit taught by the sun god, and the raging flames of the sun burned the earth. Finally, Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at Phaethon, who was shot down into the Eridanus River and died. His sisters (the Heliades) mourned his body and, after burying it, they turned into poplar trees, whose tears turned into amber. The story was dramatized by Aeschylus and Euripides, but neither has survived.

[Teruo Ito]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

ギリシア神話の太陽神の子。普通、父はヘリオスとされるが、後代になると、たとえばオウィディウスではアポロンとなっている。ホメロスでは、この名は「光り輝く」を意味する形容詞として太陽について用いられる。成人したのち初めて父の名を知ったファエトンは、世界の果てにいる父を尋ねて行く。太陽神は、父である証拠にどのような願いでもかなえてやろうと約束したので、ファエトンは太陽神の二輪車に乗ることを願った。太陽神は、その危険から、ほかのことを願うよう彼を諭(さと)すが、結局約束どおり許してしまう。ファエトンには四頭の馬を御すだけの力がなかったので、二輪車はたちまち太陽神の教えた太陽の軌道を外れ、狂奔する太陽の炎は地上を焼き払った。ついにゼウスは雷霆(らいてい)をファエトンに投げつけ、彼はエリダノス河に撃ち落とされて死ぬ。彼の姉妹たち(ヘリアデス)は、彼の死骸(しがい)を葬ったのちも嘆き悲しみ、ついにポプラの木と化した。その流れ落ちた涙は琥珀(こはく)になったという。物語は、アイスキロスやエウリピデスによって劇化されたが、いずれも散逸して伝わっていない。

[伊藤照夫]

出典 小学館 日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について 情報 | 凡例

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