The Probert Encyclopaedia of Greek & Roman Mythology

PHAETHON

In Roman mythology, Phaethon was the son of the sun and the ocean-nymph Clymene. He tried to ride the Sun's chariot across the sky, but unable to control the horses skimmed the surface of the earth charring tilled ground to desert and drying up seas, until Gaia complained to Jupiter who toppled
Phaethon with a thunderbolt, causing him to fall into the river Po where he drowned. Clymene and her nymphs collected Phaethon's body and buried it, and then stood weeping on the banks of the river until the Sun taking pity on them turned them into alders.
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