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Phaethon The Star That Fell From Heaven 1st Edition Ev
Cochrane Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Ev Cochrane
ISBN(s): 9780917994500, 0917994507
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 4.39 MB
Year: 2017
Language: english
Phaethon
The Star That Fell From Heaven
By Ev Cochrane
ISBN 0-917994-50-7
1
Special Edition
2
Table of Contents
Preface...............................................................................5
Conclusion.....................................................................116
Appendix 1....................................................................123
Appendix 2....................................................................126
3
Acknowledgments
I owe a heavy debt of gratitude to Rens van der Sluijs for carefully reading the manuscript on
multiple occasions and providing me with countless corrections and editorial suggestions as to
content. The book would not be the same if it were not for his tireless efforts and vast
knowledge of ancient literature. Rens also deserves credit for the photo adorning the front cover,
Phaeton by Gustave Moreau, which he provided me from his personal collection. The back
cover photo is of the Phaeton Krater. Title page image is Chariot of the sun-god, Athenian red-
figure krater C5th B.C., British Museum.
I welcome this chance to offer a personal note of thanks to my old comrade and fellow traveler
in what amounts to a life-long quest to solve the Great Riddle that is mythological exegesis.
4
Preface
“This myth [Phaethon’s], at its core, recapitulates virtually everything that is essential to know
about the ancient Greek hero.”1
“Myth seems to lend itself particularly well to the phenomena of astronomy, the most ancient
and sacred of the sciences.”2
Phaethon’s incendiary joyride in his father’s chariot—followed by his spectacular fall from the
celestial heights—has captivated countless generations of Earthlings ever since it was first set to
poetry by the likes of Aeschylus, Euripides, and Ovid. The origins of the story, or how it is to be
explained from the standpoint of natural science, remain a subject of seemingly endless
speculation and controversy. The present monograph intends to reopen the question over origins
by offering a cross-cultural analysis of the Phaethon-theme.
Like a Siren’s call from a distant time and wholly foreign world, the testimony of ancient myth
continues to exert a strange fascination over modern man. Whence derives the power of myth to
inspire great art and move the emotions? The question most germane to the present inquiry,
perhaps, is the following: Why should anyone take an interest in the astronomical details
encoded in ancient myth?
For countless generations before the origin of advanced civilization, myth served as the primary
medium for recording and communicating mankind’s most basic and cherished beliefs regarding
the history of the world and the nature of the cosmos. During this immense span of time every
tribal community had, as it were, its own Homer or Hesiod who, reciting from an iron-clad
memory, “sang” or otherwise recounted the local account of Creation. It is in this sense, then,
that ancient myth represents a mnemonic treasure trove documenting the intellectual history of
our forebears and, as such, it forms a rich vein of study for all serious students of human
psychology, religion, and natural philosophy. And if it should also prove to be the case that
ancient myth preserves important information regarding the recent history of Earth and the
5
ambient solar system—our primary thesis in four previous volumes—its study becomes all the
more essential and rewarding.
The advent of civilization had a profound influence on the precise means and manner by which
the archaic myths were transmitted. With the development of writing and other graphic systems
capable of preserving sacred traditions, storytellers gradually ceased to perform such a vital
function in their rapidly evolving cultures. The great myths, hitherto committed to memory and
transmitted orally from one generation to the next, now became the common possession of
anyone who could read and had access to the requisite texts. At the same time, the sacred
traditions became increasingly susceptible to the vicissitudes of cultural evolution and the
corresponding modifications that inevitably arise from the attempt to historicize and localize the
events in question. Despite the great care with which the ancient manuscripts were copied,
errors gradually crept in over the centuries. As memories faded, and as sacred traditions became
subject to ever-increasing adaptation and abridgement, the ancient scribes struggled to
understand the message that had been bequeathed to them by their ancestors. Thus it is that, for
the past several thousand years, scholars and like-minded exegetes have sought to deduce and
recover the basic message of the Iliad, the Rig Veda, the Torah, and the Pyramid Texts, albeit
with mixed results.
From this author’s vantage point it is extremely unlikely that a valid reconstruction of the
mythological testimony will ever result from the study of any one particular cultural tradition or
literary record. Rather, a better strategy would be to compare the different cultural traditions and
attempt to reconstruct common thematic patterns—those telling of a Deluge, dragon-combat, or
hieros gamos, for example. Should any such recurring thematic patterns be found—and such
patterns abound, in fact—this would naturally increase our confidence in the fundamental
veracity and informational content of the respective mytho-historical records.
How, then, are we to explain the recurring thematic patterns in the mytho-historical record? It is
our opinion that this question is best addressed by subjecting the different reconstructed patterns
to rigorous analysis and then cross-checking the results against the evidence of the physical
sciences in order to form a working hypothesis regarding the probable natural history behind the
6
respective mythological traditions. This strategy, in fact, has long formed the cornerstone of the
mytho-historical analysis practiced by this author.
Until recently, the study of ancient myth has been given short shrift by modern scholars in
general and all but ignored by mainstream science. The present book is an attempt to reinstate
the importance of mythology as a reliable witness to ancient history. It is our view that the key
to reconstructing the history of the world and the fundamental meaning of the central themes of
myth and religion has always been right before our eyes. Yet for one reason or another,
historians and scholars have been inclined to ignore it.
7
Chapter One
“There was tumult in the sky shaking the joints of the immovable universe; the very axle bent
which runs through the middle of the revolving heavens. Libyan Atlas could hardly support the
self-rolling firmament of stars, as he rested on his knees with bowed back under this greater
burden.”4
“A connection between this myth, interpreted as a cosmic conflagration from an early stage
(Plato Timaeus 22c-d), and celestial bodies plummeting from outer space must remain
hypothetical.”5
Phaethon’s exploits are famously summarized in Plato’s all-too-brief account in the Timaeus.
There the speaker is one Critias who, in turn, claims to have received his information from
Solon, the latter renowned for his wisdom. A dear friend of Critias’s great-grandfather, Solon is
said to have learned of the tale in Egypt:
“There have been and there will be many and diverse destructions of mankind, of which the
greatest are by fire and water, and lesser ones by countless other means. For in truth the story
that is told in your country as well as ours, how once upon a time Phaethon, son of Helios, yoked
his father’s chariot, and, because he was unable to drive it along the course taken by his father,
burnt up all that was upon the earth and himself perished by a thunderbolt—that story, as it is
told, has the fashion of legend, but the truth of it lies in the occurrence of a shifting of the bodies
in heaven which move around the earth, and a destruction of the things on the earth by fierce fire,
which recurs at long intervals.”6
3 Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1.11.2 as translated in G. Ferrari, op. cit., p. 65.
4 Nonnos, Dionysiaca 38.350ff as translated by L. Lind, Nonnos Dionysiaca, Vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 116-
121.
5 T. Heinze, “Phaëthon,” in H. Cancik & H. Schneider eds., Brill’s New Pauly 10 (Leiden, 2007), col. 905.
6 Timaeus 22c-d.
8
It will be noted that the global catastrophe commemorated in the story of Phaethon is attributed
to a “shifting of the bodies in heaven,” an apparent reference to the disturbance or dramatic fall
of one or more celestial bodies.7
In addition to Plato, other ancient authors also made Phaethon the focal point of their literary
works. Aeschylus (Heliades), Euripides (Phaethon), and Theodorides (Phaethon) all produced
tragedies devoted to a hero named Phaethon. Sadly, these works are known to us only in
fragments and hence have given rise to widely different reconstructions.8
Of all the ancient works recounting the myth of Phaethon, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is certainly the
most familiar and fleshed out. Indeed, Ovid’s poem has been called “by far the most important
and influential of all Latin mythographical texts, the richest and most memorable single source
of Greek myth for the Roman, medieval, and Renaissance worlds.”9 Although it stands to reason
that Ovid modeled his narrative on earlier Greek accounts, the specific sources that he
employed—apart from Euripides (circa 420 BCE)—remain largely unknown.10 Writing in the
first decade of the common era, Ovid offered a more elaborate and, one would suspect,
embellished version of the ancient story. The basic outlines of Ovid’s tale are well-known. The
son of Clymene, upon learning that his true father is Helios, sets off to claim his divine destiny.
After reaching heaven, Phaethon demands to drive the solar chariot despite the warnings of his
father, who knows full well just how difficult it is to handle the powerful team of horses who
labor to usher in the day. An excerpt from the Metamorphoses follows:
“But the lad has already mounted the light chariot, and, standing proudly, takes the light reins
with joy into his hands, and thanks his unwilling father for the gift…And, as curved ships,
without their proper ballast, roll in the waves, and, unstable because too light, are borne out of
their course, so the chariot, without its accustomed burden, gives leaps into the air, is tossed aloft
and is like a riderless car. When they feel this, the team run wild and leave the well-beaten track,
7 For a recent discussion of the evidence, see M. A. van der Sluijs, “Phaethon and the Great Year,” Apeiron 39:1
(2006), pp. 85-86.
8 The best discussion of the evidence is J. Diggle, Euripides: Phaethon (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 4-32. See also C.
Collard, M. Cropp & K. Lee eds., Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays, Vol. I (Warminster, 1995), pp. 195-239.
9 A. Cameron, Greek Mythography in the Roman World (Oxford, 2004), p. 311.
10 J. Diggle, Euripides: Phaethon (Cambridge, 1970), p. 8.
9
and fare no longer in the same course as before. The driver is panic-stricken…Dazed, he knows
not what to do…When the horses feel these [the fallen reins] lying on their backs, they break
loose from their course…Now they climb up to the top of heaven, and now, plunging headlong
down, they course along nearer the earth…The earth bursts into flame…Great cities perish with
their walls, and the vast conflagration reduces whole nations to ashes…But the Almighty Father
[Zeus], calling on the gods to witness and him above all who had given the chariot, that unless he
bring aid all things will perish by a grievous doom, mounts on high to the top of
heaven…whence he stirs his thunders and flings his hurtling bolts…He thundered, and balancing
in his right hand a bolt, flung it from beside the ear at the charioteer and hurled him from the car
and from life as well, and thus quenched fire with blasting fire. The maddened horses leap apart,
wrench their necks from the yoke, and break away from the parted reins. Here lie the reins, there
the axle torn from the pole…But Phaëthon, fire ravaging his ruddy hair, is hurled headlong and
falls with a long trail through the air; as sometimes a star from the clear heavens, although it does
not fall, still seems to fall.”11
Interpretations abound as for how we are to understand Phaethon’s catastrophic fall from heaven.
Among Classicists it has long been something of a consensus that the myth of Phaethon
commemorates the setting of the sun. This view can be traced back well into the last century,
where it was popularized by Carl Robert, among others.12 A solar aetiology of the myth is still
fashionable in some circles, as witnessed by the recent remarks of Jon Solomon:
“From these and other numerous mythological representations we can see that the setting of the
sun had at some period been considered to be of the greatest and widespread importance. The
Phaethon myth is perhaps the most obvious example, for it describes a mortal offspring of the
sun god unsuccessfully attempting to borrow the solar chariot and crashing it to earth—in the
West, of course…Phaethon, a mortal hypostasis of the immortal Helios, crashes the solar chariot
once, but in an eternal return the event is geophysically repeated on a daily basis.”13
11 Metamorphoses, Book II, lines 150-322 as translated by F. Miller (Cambridge, 1960), pp. 71-83.
12 C. Robert, “Die Phaethonsage bei Hesiod,” Hermes 18 (1883), pp. 434-441.
13 J. Solomon, “Apollo and the Lyre,” in J. Solomon ed., Apollo (Tucson, 1994), p. 41.
10
In an important article published in 1883, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff argued that
Phaethon was to be identified with the planet Venus.14 Having first gained a measure of fame for
his venomous critique of Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, Wilamowitz claimed that
Hesiod’s Theogony (989ff.) provided some basis for believing that Phaethon was catasterized as
a star alongside Venus, thereby supporting the opinion of Hellenistic astronomers such as
Hyginus: “Das alte Naturmärchen konnte einfach erzählen, Aphrodite nimmt sich den Jüngling
den sie liebt, und lässt ihn zum Sterne werden.”15
Georg Knaack, whose article in Roscher’s Lexikon stands as the most authoritative treatment of
the myth to date, also identified Phaethon with Venus.16
The astronomer Edwin Krupp has been described as “one of the world’s greatest experts on
archaeoastronomy” and is the author of several popular books on the intersection of astronomy
and ancient myth.17 After a lifetime of observing the stars and pondering the astronomical
content of ancient myth, Krupp wavered as to the celestial determinants of the Phaethon myth:
“The myth of Phaëthon could represent any of the several celestial phenomena. Perhaps Venus,
whose path crosses to either side of the sun and is in some ways erratic, is intended by allegory.
Or perhaps some dramatic, unexpected, and unwelcome cosmic visitor inspired the myth. A
comet may seem wayward and unsettling. Some evidence in the myth implies that the story
concerns the order of the year and the fear that the sun might abandon its normal path, an anxiety
akin to the notion that in December the sun threatens just to continue its way south and maroon
the world in winter. Although the chariot’s departure with Phaëthon was styled as a sunrise in
the sun’s daily course, the sun’s annual motion on the ecliptic may be the story’s real core.
Helios advised Phaëthon the road would pass by the Bull, the Archer, the Lion, the Scorpion, and
the Crab. These constellations define the better part of the zodiac, territory the sun would never
encounter in but one day’s travels.
11
There is a cosmic theme here: the challenge to world order…Despite threat of storm or eclipse,
the sun—holding to its steady courses, its predictable cycle—measured out the world’s order in
time and space. No more vivid image of the peril of chaos could be contrived than the chariot of
the sun out of control.”18
Remarkably, after several paragraphs of equally astute analysis, Krupp explains the myth of
Phaethon as reflecting either the familiar movements of Venus or the dramatic appearance of a
wayward comet or, perhaps, the sun moving along the ecliptic over the course of the year. Such
are the lessons to be learned from “one of the world’s greatest experts on archaeoastronomy”!
All of the scholars cited thus far would explain the Phaethon-myth by reference to the familiar
solar system—as an allegory of the sunset or Venus’s disappearance from view. Franz Kugler, a
pioneer in the study of Babylonian astronomy, offered a radically different interpretation. The
Phaethon story, according to the renowned Jesuit scholar, celebrated an extraordinary meteor
shower. At the same time, Kugler offered a damning critique of previous interpretations based
upon the familiar peaceful skies:
“So simple, ordinary and peaceful a phenomenon as the evening sky could not provide the basis
for a legend which patently describes complicated, extraordinary and violent events. And yet
neither, on the other hand, could the appearance of Venus as the morning star awaken the idea of
universal catastrophe—even in the wildest imagination. One might well conceive of the morning
star as the driver of Helios’ chariot, or imagine the evening star to be a deity fallen from the
chariot of the sun…In the same way, the climb of Venus to its maximum elongation could be
interpreted mythically as a striving for dominion in the heavens. But a Phaethon in the sense of
the ‘Hesiodic’ or the Alexandrine version (which latter has been regarded as the source for the
narratives of Ovid, Lucian and Nonnos, inter alia…) could never be made of Venus.”
“There is however one natural phenomenon that could very easily occasion this legend. In the
search for this, the following factors should be given the greatest possible consideration: (1)
Phaethon appears not merely as a cognomen for Helios; he is also set fully equal to Helios
12
(especially in Nonnos). (2) Phaethon is not the driver of a sun-chariot in which Helios is also
traveling, but takes the other’s place. (3) The journey is different in both direction and pace from
that of the sun. (4) The firmament is brightly inflamed. (5) Phaethon is struck by lightning, and
falls to earth. (6) The flames of Phaethon’s fire also set fire to the earth.—Now, with all of these
certain meteoritic phenomena are completely in accord.”
“Again and again, not only in modern times, but also long ago in antiquity, meteors have been
observed which resemble the sun in respect of size and brilliance, and cross the sky at great
speed in various directions, not rarely exploding, to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning,
sometimes setting fire to terrestrial settlements and fields with their glowing debris. That,
according to the popular and poetic conception, such an unexpected apparition should bring the
stars into confusion, can readily be understood.”19
Kugler’s catastrophic interpretation subsequently found favor with the Classicist James Diggle, if
with few other modern scholars.20 In his book-length treatment of Euripides’ Phaethon, Diggle
dismissed the solar interpretation, arguing that the hero’s tragic demise is better understood as
commemorating a singular catastrophe than a regularly occurring phenomenon:
“That Phaethon’s fall attempts to explain in mythical terms why the sun sinks blazing in the west
as if crashing to earth in flames and yet returns to its task unimpaired the following day, cannot
be entertained. Phaethon’s crash is an event out of the ordinary, a sudden and unexpected
calamity, occurring once and not daily.”21
19 F. Kugler, as translated by M. Lowery, “Father Kugler’s Falling Star,” Kronos 2:4 (1977), pp. 10-11.
20 J. Blomqvist, “The Fall of Phaethon and the Kaalijarv Meteorite Crater: Is There a Connection?,” Eranos 92
(1994), pp. 1-16 suggests that Phaethon’s fall has reference to the fall of a meteorite in the Baltic in 4000 BCE. See
also Wilhelm Gundel’s review of Kugler’s monograph, Gnomon 4 (1928), pp. 449-451; P. James & M. A. van der
Sluijs, “The Fall of Phaethon in Context: A New Synthesis of Mythological, Archaeological and Geological
Evidence,” JANER 16:1 (2016), pp. 67-94.
21 J. Diggle, op. cit., p. 10.
13
planet Venus (Phaethon), then moving on a cometary orbit.22 Velikovsky summarized his thesis
as follows:
“Phaëthon, which means ‘the blazing star,’ became the Morning Star. The earliest writer who
refers to the transformation of Phaëthon into a planet is Hesiod [citing Theogony 989ff]. The
transformation is related by Hyginus in his Astronomy, where he tells how Phaëthon…was struck
by a thunderbolt of Jupiter and was placed by the sun among the stars (planets). It was the
general belief that Phaëthon changed into the Morning Star [citing Georg Knaack’s article on
Phaëthon in Roscher’s Lexikon, col. 2182]…A blazing star disrupted the visible movement of the
sun, caused a world conflagration and became the Morning-Evening Star. This may be found
not only in the legends and traditions, but also in astronomical books of the ancient peoples of
both hemispheres.”23
Velikovsky’s handling of the ancient sources, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired.24 Hesiod
hardly offers a straightforward account of the “transformation of Phaëthon into a planet.” Far
from it, in fact. The relevant passage from the Theogony reads as follows:
“And to Cephalus she [Eos] bare a splendid son, strong Phaëthon, a man like the gods, whom,
when he was a young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts, laughter-
loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit.”25
In fairness to Velikovsky, the passage in question has long represented a crux to scholars
attempting to decipher the Phaethon myth. We will attempt to decipher Hesiod’s account of
Phaethon in a later chapter.
To summarize our discussion to this point: A review of the literature has shown that some of the
best minds in the history of classical scholarship have offered diametrically opposed opinions as
Hesiod’s Phaëthon with the Morning Star, it identifies the tragic charioteer with the Sun or, alternately, Saturn.
25 Theogony 986-991 as translated by H. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Homerica (Cambridge, 2002), p.
153.
14
to the original nature of Phaethon, alternately identifying him with the Sun, the planet Venus, or
with some other celestial phenomenon entirely. Although some scholars, such as Kugler and
Diggle, have favored a catastrophic interpretation of the Phaethon-myth, uniformitarian
explanations certainly represent the consensus view. Profound disagreement also distinguishes
the question as to whether or not the impetuous charioteer is to be identified with Aphrodite’s
paramour with the same name, as immortalized by Hesiod (see chapter seven). Thus we would
appear to have reached an impasse in our attempt to discover the nature of the celestial events
encoded in the Phaethon-myth, if any.
It is in situations like this that additional insight can sometimes be gained by examining
analogous traditions from different cultures. If similar reports or mythological patterns can be
found elsewhere, a comparative analysis can help reconstruct the probable historical context of
the thematic patterns in question.
That the Greek myth of Phaethon has striking parallels from around the world is commonly
acknowledged. Gregory Nagy argued the point most forcefully: “The basic motifs of this
Phaethon story are founded on mythological universals.”26 That said, I know of no
comprehensive study of Phaethon from the standpoint of comparative mythology.27 The
following analysis represents a preliminary attempt to rectify that situation.
From the familiar myths of ancient Greece we turn to consider the sacred traditions of the
indigenous cultures of North America.
Chapter Two
26 G. Nagy, “Phaethon, Sappho’s Phaon, and the White Rock of Leukas,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 77
(1973), p. 148.
27 Frazer’s commentary to Apollodorus represents the outstanding exception in this regard: “Phaethon and the Sun,”
in Apollodorus: The Library Vol. II (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 388-394. See also P. James & M. A. van der Sluijs,
“The Fall of Phaeton in Context: A New Synthesis of Mythological, Archaeological and Geological Evidence,”
JANER 16:1 (2016), pp. 70-73.
15
Amerindian Parallels
“No other primitive people has such an extensive and accurate record of its myths, tales, and
legends as the North American Indian.”28
It has long been known that oral traditions from the New World share certain thematic patterns
or mythemes in common with the Greek myth of Phaethon.29 The distinguished anthropologist
Franz Boas collected a number of such traditions from the indigenous cultures living along the
Northern Pacific coast of North America. A Bella Coola account begins by recounting the trials
and tribulations of a young woman who, in an attempt to rebuff the amorous advances of a
malicious fellow named Stump, manages to escape to the house of the Sun, whom she
subsequently marries. Boas translates the myth as follows:
“The woman now lived in a corner of the house of the Sun, and after a while she gave birth to a
boy, the son of the Sun. His name was Totqoaya. He was very ugly, and his face was covered
with sores. In time his mother longed to return to her father on earth; so, instructed by the Sun,
she took her boy on her back and walked down the eyelashes of the Sun, which are the
sunbeams, till she came in the evening to her father’s house…The next morning the boy went out
of the house, and began to play with the other children, who made fun of him. Then he told them
that his father was the Sun; but they merely laughed at him, until he grew very angry. Then he
told his mother that he intended to return to his father in heaven. He made a great many arrows
and a bow, went outside, and began to shoot his arrows upward. The first one struck the sky.
The second one struck the notch of the first one. And thus he continued until a chain of arrows
was formed which reached the ground. Then he climbed up; and after reaching heaven, he went
into the Sun’s house. There he said, ‘Father, I wish to take your place to-morrow.’ The Sun
consented, but said, ‘Take care that you do not burn the people. I use only one torch in the
morning, and increase the number of torches until noon. In the afternoon I extinguish the torches
one by one.’ On the following morning the boy took his father’s torches and went along the path
of the Sun; but very soon he lighted up all the torches. It became very hot on earth. The woods
began to burn, and the rocks to crack, and many people died…When the Sun saw what the boy
16
was doing, he caught him and threw him down to the earth, and said, ‘Henceforth you shall be
the mink.’”30
As in Ovid’s telling of the Phaethon story, the Bella Coola Phaethon is chided for being a bastard
and because of this umbrage he is inspired to climb to heaven and inquire after his father. Most
striking is the explicit linking of the Sun’s “son” to a cataclysmic world-conflagration, a
circumstance that culminates in the rash youngster being hurled down from the heavenly heights.
New in the Bella Coola myth is the curious detail regarding the hero’s distinctive appearance—
he is described as covered with sores. As we will discover, this datum offers an important clue
to the hero’s celestial identity.
New also is the report that the hero’s journey to meet his father involved an ascent to heaven
along a chain of arrows. We will return to this widespread mytheme in a later chapter.
Another Bella Coola informant preserved a radically different version of the story. In this telling
the hero’s destructive behavior arises out of vengeful belligerence rather than from mere
carelessness. And it is the youth’s unkempt appearance—his face is said to be “dirty”—rather
than his suspect parentage that inspires his comrades to mock him. Upon being bullied, the boy
brashly announces to his tormentors that he will go up to heaven and make his father incinerate
them all. As Boas recounts the story:
“He began to climb up the eyelashes of Snq [the Sun], which were the sun’s rays, and thus
reached the sky. He asked his father whether he could carry the sun in his stead. His father gave
it to him and he climbed up in the morning, carrying the sun. Towards noon he made the sun
hotter and hotter so that houses and trees started to burn…He said to the people, ‘You see, I’ve
burned your houses because you tormented me.”31
30 James Frazer, “Phaethon and the Sun,” in Apollodorus: The Library Vol. II (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 390-391. See
also F. Boas, The Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians (New York, 1898), pp. 100-103.
31 F. Boas, Indian Myths & Legends from the North Pacific Coast of America (Vancouver, 2002), p. 509.
17
Interestingly, at this point in the narrative, with nary a hint of what is to come next, it is reported:
“He had become more pure and more handsome now.”32 As we will discover, the magical
transformation of a previously ugly Phaethon-like figure into a beautiful youth is an archetypal
and seemingly universal thematic pattern, one to which we will return again and again
throughout this monograph.33
The Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia preserved a very similar story, a not unexpected
situation given the fact that they formerly lived in close proximity to the Bella Coola. As is often
the case even amongst close neighbors, the Kwakiutl narrative preserves additional information
of interest. In this version of the myth Mink’s mother becomes impregnated by the rays of the
Sun. Once again, Mink’s playmates make fun of him for his apparent bastardy and, upon
learning his father’s identity from his mother, the youth resolves to journey to the house of the
Sun. At that point Mink begins shooting arrows at the sky:
“Then Born-to-be-the-Sun shot one of the arrows upward. It is said it struck our sky. Then he
shot another one upward. It struck the nock of the one that he had shot upward first; then again
another one, and it hit the end of his arrow. His arrows came down sticking together. Then he
shot the last one, and it hit the end of the one he had shot before. They came to the ground.
Then the mother of Born-to-be-the-Sun took the end of the arrows and shook them, and they
became a rope…Then Born-to-be-the-Sun climbed, going upward. He went to visit his father.
He arrived, and went through to the upper side of the sky.”34
After receiving some paternal advice, Mink expresses his wish to act as a substitute Sun. Shortly
thereafter, upon being provided with his father’s magical garments, the impetuous youth starts
off on the trail otherwise associated with the Sun’s daily journey. As in the Greek legend, the
hero’s carelessness soon leads to disaster:
“Already this world began to burn. There was noise of the cracking of mountains, caught
fire…That was the reason of the fury of Born-to-be-the-Sun’s father. The chief pursued his
32 Ibid.
33 See the discussion in E. Cochrane, Starf*cker (Ames, 2006), pp. 56-93.
34 F. Boas, Kwakiutl Tales, Vol. II (New York, 1910), pp. 124-125.
18
child. He reached him when the sun was not low. Then the clothing of Born-to-be-the-Sun was
taken away…Born-to-be-the-Sun was just taken by the neck by his father, and was thrown
through the hole. Born-to-be-the-Sun came down. A canoe was paddling along, and came right
to Born-to-be-the-Sun. ‘Is this our chief, Born-to-be-the-Sun, floating about?’ Then he raised
his head on the water when they touched him with the paddle. ‘Indeed, I have been asleep on the
water a long time.’ He went ashore and went inland.”35
As in the Greek myth, the Sun’s son is hurled from heaven. Most noteworthy is the fact that the
Kwakiutl Phaethon, like his Greek counterpart, is cast into a body of water after bringing the
world to the very brink of destruction. Unlike Phaethon, however, Mink survives the fall from
heaven with his reputation intact, later being hailed as a “chief.” Clearly this was no ordinary
youth.
Another Bella Coola version of the myth recorded by Boas further clarifies the nature of the
cataclysm associated with the Amerindian Phaethon.36 Here a woman named Nuspuselxsakai’x
longs to marry the Sun and, after rejecting the offers of numerous mortal suitors, sets off for his
house. Upon reaching the celestial domicile and giving her hand in marriage, the woman is
surprised to find that she is pregnant with his son, this despite the fact that only one day has
elapsed since they first consummated their love. Of this son—the aforementioned T’otqoa’ya—
it was said: “He grew very quickly, and on the second day of his life he was able to walk and
talk.”
The precocious youngster soon asked to meet his mother’s parents, which leads him to descend
to earth along the “rays of the Sun.” While there the boy is teased by the local children for his
apparent bastardy, thereby prompting him to shoot a number of arrows at the sky in order to
build a ladder-to-heaven. At that point the beleaguered son sets out to meet his father, the Sun:
35J. Frazer, op cit., p. 393. See also F. Boas, Kwakiutl Tales, Vol. 2 (NY, 1910), pp. 123-127.
36F. Boas, “The Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians,” Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History II
(1898), pp. 95-97.
19
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