This original ink and watercolor work depicts a moment of high drama in a popular Greek myth that was famously recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. 8 AD). Phaeton, the Sun-god Apollo's son, had begged his father to allow him to drive the Chariot of the Sun across the sky. After Apollo finally conceded, his worst fears were confirmed: the rash youth had neither the strength nor the experience to control the chariot and keep it on its regular course through the heavens. The horses bolted in an erratic pattern, so that Earth either froze because the Sun Chariot was too far away, or it was scorched by the Sun's heat. Sitting on clouds at the top of the scene is Jupiter, the supreme god, depicted as just having aimed his thunderbolt at Phaeton in order to save the universe from complete destruction. The chariot and the horses tumble apart as Phaeton plunges to his death. In the near distance to the right, a temple lays in ruins.
The man in tattered clothing and crown shielding his eyes at the bottom left further supports the scene as that of being related to Helios. He is most likely the shipwrecked Odysseus who is the sole surviver of his ship from Homer's Odyssey. The storm that destroyed the ship killing the entire crew except Odysseus was sent by Jupiter, who was asked by Helios to punish the ship's crew for eating Helio's Cattle of the Sun. Odyssey is washed ashore to Calypso's island, where she keeps him captive as here lover for seven years. In the Odyssey, Odysseus also incurs the wrath of Poseidon when he wounds the cyclops, the god's son. The god promises his son to never let Odysseus reach home. Poseidon, identified by his seahorse chariot and trident at the the lower right, raises his arms and reaches upward, perhaps vehemently arguing against Zeus' decision to release Odysseus from Calypso's control.
