The Death of Phaethon in the River Eridanus

The glass exactly reproduces the rare subject of a sanguine drawing by Pierre Brebiette (Nantes 1598 – Paris 1650), now in the Louvre (Département des Arts Graphiques, inv. 25048). The scene shows Phaethon, who has asked his father Apollo to let him drive the chariot of the Sun for a day. However, he loses control and is struck by a thunderbolt from Zeus, who makes him fall from the sky in order to prevent the chariot from burning up the Earth. Next to the dying Phaethon we see the Heliades, the demigod’s sisters, who are overcome with tears and turn into poplars, and their brother Eridanus (the real name of the River Po), shown with a bull’s head. The figure on the left is Cycnus – the son of Sthenelus, king of Liguria – a relative of Phaethon, who also rushes to mourn his friend, turned into a swan by the gods.