What this project is about.
This one is from Book 2.
Gustave Moreau
How long it took to read this (aloud): 26 mins 55s
What it’s “about”: Phaethon (wikipedia) won’t listen to his dad’s desperate warnings, grabs the reins, dies for his troubles and causes *absolute ecological meltdown*. No analogy there, whatsoever
Words I didn’t know: none
Quotable quotes:
Then the Sun feared the promise he had made.
Four times he shook his fiery golden hair;
“Your words prove mine have been too quickly said,
1 would be happy to unsay them now,
For what you ask is the one gift that I
Would keep beyond your reach; let me attempt
To unpersuade you of your wish, a dangerous one
That asks too much, too far beyond your strength,
Or any boy’s. Your destiny is mortal;
What you would do, or ignorantly try
To do, only divine skill, power, art
Can hope to do
Yet all the way is filled with hidden terror,
And if you hold the road, the horned Bull,
The enchanted Archer, the open mouth
Of the wild Lion, Scorpion and Crab
With hairy, knifelike tails, claws reaching
Each against each, to meet, to face the other,
Are in your way Nor then are horses easy
To control: when they grow hot the fires leap
Within their hearts, stream from their nostrils, lips,
And even I can scarcely hold the reins
To steer the fiery eyes and foaming bit.
Then let me warn you, Phaethon my son:
My yielding to your wish looks like your death —
And there is time for you to change your mind —
Do you need further proof that you are mine?
The true sign is my fear: look in my face;
And if you could, look in my heart, see there
A father’s anxious blood and passion.
If you could understand, O son! Turn here,
See all the riches of the world, the light
Of land, sea, sky within your eyes — take all,
Take anything, nothing shall be denied.
Except what you desire, which if you knew
It is a curse, my Phaethon, and not
The honour and the hope within your mind.
My promise holds — but make a wiser wish!”
And
Fortuna save you!
May she be at your side to guide you better
Than you lead yourself. Even as I speak
Mist-carrying night falls to the Western Isles.
We wait no longer; we are called to go.
See how Aurora shines and shadows vanish;
Pick up the rems, or if your will has changed,
Take my advice and not my chariot,
Even before you mount, since you are still on earth,
The folly of your desire may be undone,
And you, secure, shall see me light the world.”
But the mad boy had leaped into the cart;
Cheerful, erect, he held the glowing reins
And thanked his anxious father for the gift.
Then Phaethon,
Numbed, chilled, and broken, dropped the reins.
As the reins fell across their flanks the horses
Broke from their course; riderless charging, wild,
Wherever their desire turned, they followed,
Flaming against the deep-set stars and tossing
Their chariot through wilderness of air.
Up to the top of heaven they blazed, then down
Almost to earth. The Moon in wonder saw
Her brother’s chargers race beneath her own,
Break smoking through the clouds, the earth in flames,
Mountains touched first, hills, plateaus, plains,
The dry earth canyon-split, the fields spread white
In ashes; trees, leaves were branches of the flames
While miles of grain were fuel for their own fires —
But these were the lesser losses I regret.
The great walled cities perished; nations fell,
Forests and mountains fed each other’s flames:
And
The sky shed flares of light throughout their kingdom;
The seas shrank into sand and from their waters
The hidden mountains rose and Eastern islands
Came where the waves had vanished. There fish dived down
To deepest ocean’s floor and dolphins feared
To leap the fiery air. On glowing waves
With bellies to the sky dead sea cows floated;
HERE PHAETHON LIES WHO DROVE HIS FATHER’S CARE;;
THOUGH HE FAILED GREATLY, YET HE VENTURED MORE
Meanwhile the father of dead Phaethon
Sat in funereal darkness, dark as when
His face is covered by eclipse; he turned
Hate on himself and on the light of day
And gave his soul to sorrow and grief’s anger
And would not, could not stir to light the world.
“I have done enough,” he cried. “From the beginning
Of time my fate has been long restlessness;
I tire of labor that shall never end;
Let he who will drive daily teams of light,
And if none cares to, then let Jove take reins,
And put aside the blazing thundershaft
Which robs the father of his son — then he
Shall learn to test the strength, the will,
The temper of my swift fire-footed horses,
Shall learn that he who fails to steer them well
Should never earn death for his punishment.”
How it lands to my eco-sensibility: OMFG – this is the juice!
Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : xx
What I know I didn’t ‘get’: xx
To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): xx
Further research questions: xx
Anything else: xx
I need to turn this into jocular quatrains.
Young Phaethon was a feisty foolish lad
Who said to Helios “if you’re my dad
You’ll let me drive your chariot today”
“Oh, son,” said Dad, “it is with fire you play”
And so on…
marchudson.net 
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