By what evidence can a father prove that he really is the father? This is a question that often is of interest to human beings, who cannot always be sure who is the father of a child. It is interesting that in this myth and in that of Bellerophon, there is a question about which son belongs to which father. The instability caused by the deal between father and son ultimately requires the intervention of Zeus.
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The myth teaches sons to be humble and reminds fathers that when they send their sons out into the world, it is normal to fear great dangers that their sons must face on their own. He becomes helpless in the face of his son's brazen confidence.
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Apollo wants to do right by his son, but in meeting his son’s heart’s desire, he becomes the agent of his son’s tragic death. The tragic tale about Phaethon and his father perfectly explicates the dynamic between elders and youth. Pegasus becomes Zeus's favorite animal, residing in the stalls of Mount Olympus and bringing thunder and lightning to him. Bellerophon wanders alone, "devouring his own soul," until he dies. When he tries to take the journey up to the gods’ kingdom, Pegasus throws Bellerophon off his back. Unfortunately, Bellerophon loses favor with the gods when he attempts to become more than human and take a place on Mount Olympus. He returns to Proteus, and Proteus sends him on many more challenging adventures.Įventually, the victorious Bellerophon wins Proteus's respect, and the king even gives the man his daughter's hand in marriage. With the help of Pegasus, however, Bellerophon kills the beast with no harm to himself. But like Proteus, the Lycian king does not want to offend Zeus by acting violently towards a guest, so instead he sends Bellerophon on an impossible journey to kill a monster, Chimaera. When the king opens his letter, it has clear instructions to kill Bellerophon. On the back of Pegasus, Bellerophon travels easily, meets the Lycian king, and stays with him for nine wonderful days. Proteus does not want to kill Bellerophon personally because the boy has eaten at his table, so instead he asks the boy to deliver a letter to the Lycian king. Bellerophon denies the queen's advances, but the evil woman tells her husband that the boy has wronged her and must die. But Bellerophon's situation becomes complicated when the king's wife takes an interest in him. He goes to King Proteus for purification, which the king grants. Later, Bellerophon kills his brother entirely by accident. It does, and Pegasus becomes Bellerophon's loyal beast. Athena comes to him in a dream and gives him a golden bridle which, she says, will tame the horse. More than anything, Bellerophon wants to ride Pegasus, a winged horse, so he goes to Athena's temple to pray. It is thought that Glaucus's son is a beautiful young man named Bellerophon, but it is also rumored that the boy's father is Poseidon. Eventually the gods throw him from his chariot and have his horses eat him.
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But the gods dislike him because he feeds his horses human flesh. To prevent the entire planet from burning, Zeus sends a thunderbolt which kills Phaethon and drives the horses into the sea.
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Apollo seems to have no choice but to let his son drive the chariot and watch as the horses run recklessly through the sky, crashing into stars and even setting the earth on fire. Although his father warns him that no god (let alone a human) can control the horses and safely ride the chariot across the sky, Phaethon will not listen. The boy's dream is to ride Apollo's chariot. To prove it, he will give Phaethon anything he wants, swearing by the River Styx that he will grant Phaethon his wildest dream. Phaethon, a young man, travels to the Palace of the Sun to meet Apollo and find out if the sun god is in fact his father.