Greek Myth By Bernard Evslin

Greek Myth Essay The myth that we are focusing on right now is the myth of Phaethon. The version of the myth that we’re doing is in the book Heroes, Gods and Monsters of The Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin. The purpose of this essay is to educate you about the myth of Phaethon from Greek Mythology. The story starts out with Phaethon talking to Ephapus on a cliff. Ephapus starts out by saying “...I always play with my father! What about you?” Since Phaethon hasn’t seen his father in his entire life, he lies about playing with his father. Ephapus then asks him “...prove it then!” Phaethon then says “Since my dad rides on a chariot acting like the sun, I’ll go on that chariot all alone!” Ephapus then asks “How will I know it’s you in the chariot

Apollo is scared of letting Phaethon ride his chariot. Phaethon rode the chariot to prove to his friend that he was close to Apollo, just like his friend and his father Zeus. Phaethon was told not to get too close to the ground or too far. If Phaethon follows the rules, his friend won’t be able to know that it’s him that’s riding the chariot. Knowing this, Phaethon then goes down to the village where his friend is. The quote “Prove it then!” swirled in Phaethon’s mind while also hearing his father’s voice say “...Do not go too close or too far!” Phaethon wouldn’t have died if his friend wouldn’t have said that. It all started when Phaethon ventured into the forest and passed out. Apollo then sends his bird to bring Phaethon to him. Phaethon then asks if he would do anything for him. Phaethon then convinces him to ride his chariot. Apollo gives him warnings that Phaethon didn’t follow. When Phaethon was riding on the chariot, he then tries to make his friend notice him by going closer to his house. He melts the Earth, so then he goes higher up. Then, the Earth freezes. Zeus sees all the havoc and then throws a lightning bolt at the chariot. Then the horses go back to Apollo’s castle. Apollo is scared from this moment, so that’s why he decided not to let anyone but himself ride

This myth was made to tell us about the reason for things occurring in nature with the first one being the reason for harsh conditions of certain places like deserts and other places like the Antarctic and frozen wastelands created by when Phaethon had try to stay true to the promise he made with his friend he had scorched lands when coming down and frozen forest when trying to stabilize himself when up high. The second thing this story tried to explain to the somewhat primitive Greek people is why some people have dark complections, again due to Paethon’s rampaging through the earth due to the tanning of the sun and explaining the reason for their need for adaption to those harsh conditions ultimately causing their darkened skin complections. The final thing this story was trying to explain to the Greeks was the reason for the random deposits of amber found in bodies of water which was explained to be created by his sisters tears of amber caused by their weeping at his dead body after being struck of the chariot by Zeus as it was the only way to control the chariot and stop the earth's changing