in fabulous history, was the son of the Sun, or Phœbus and Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was son of Cephalus and Aurora, according to Hesiod and Pausanias; or of Tithonus and Aurora, according to Apollodorus. He is, however, more generally acknowledged to be the son of Phœbus and Clymene. He was naturally of a lively disposition, and a handsome figure. Venus became enamoured of him, and entrusted him with the care of one of her temples. This distinguishing favour of the goddess rendered him vain and aspiring; and when Epaphus, the son of Io, had told him, to check his pride, that he was not the son of Phœbus, Phæton resolved to know his true origin, and at the instigation of his mother he visited the palace of the sun. He begged Phœbus, that if he really were his father, he would give him incontestable proofs of his paternal tenderness, and convince the world of his legitimacy. Phœbus received him with great tenderness, and swore by Styx to grant whatever he requested as a proof of his acknowledging him for his son. The youth boldly asked the direction of the chariot of the sun for one day. His father, grieved and surprised at this demand, used all his arguments to dissuade him from the rash attempt; but all was in vain: and being by his oath reduced to submit to his obliquity, entrusted him with the reins, after he had directed him how to use them. The young adventurer was however soon sensible of his madness. He was unable to guide the fiery steeds; and loosing the reins, Jupiter, to prevent his consuming the heavens and earth, struck him with a thunderbolt, and hurled him from his seat into the river Eridanus or Po. His sisters Phaethusa, Lampetia, and Phoebe, lamenting his loss upon its banks, were changed by the gods into black poplar trees; and Cynus king of Liguria, also grieving at his fate, was transformed into a fish.

The poets say, that while Phæton was driving the chariot of his father, the blood of the Ethiopians was dried up; and their skin became black; a colour which is still preferred among the greatest part of the inhabitants of the torrid zone. The territories of Libya were also, they tell us, parched up, on account of their too great vicinity to the sun; and ever since, Africa, unable to recover her original verdure and fruitfulness, has exhibited a sandy country and uncultivated waste. According to those who explain this poetical fable, Phæton was a Ligurian prince, who studied astronomy, and in whose age the neighbourhood of the Po was visited with uncommon heats.

a genus of birds belonging to the order of anseres. See Ornithology Index.

PHAGEDÆNA, in Medicine, denotes a corroding ulcer.