Phaethon

Profile

In the Commedia Phaethon is recalled as the son of the Sun who poorly guided his father's chariot, causing part of the sky to catch fire. His name appears in Inferno XVII, in the passage where Dante compares the fear experienced during the flight of Geryon to that of the myth, when Phaethon let go of the reins and the horses strayed from their course. The character returns in Paradiso XXXI, where the poet indicates in the sky the point where the sun is about to rise, described as the place where one awaits the temo, that is, the pole of the chariot that Phaethon guided to his ruin. The note on the passage adds that that point of the celestial sphere appears more inflamed, while the light diminishes at its sides.