Her son was Epaphus, and it’s believed
that she gave birth to him from great Jove’s seed;
he shares his mother’s shrines in many cities.
The peer of Epaphus in temperament
and age was Phoebus’ son, young Phaethon.
Once, Phaethon—so proud to have the Sun
as father—claimed that he was better born
than Epaphus, who met that claim with scorn:
“Fool, do you think that all your mother says
is true—those lying tales that swelled your head?”
And Phaethon blushed: ashamed, the boy was forced
to check his scorn; he hurried off at once
to tell Clymene of that calumny:
“And, mother, what will cause you still more pain,
is this: I, who am frank, so prone to pride,
was tongue-tied. I am mortified—ashamed
that I could be insulted in this way—
yet not rebut the charge! So, if in truth
my lineage is heavenly, provide
the proof of my high birth, and justify
my claim to have a father in the sky!”
That said, he threw his arms around her neck
and begged her, by his own life and the life
Latin [740–63]
of Merops, whom she’d married now, and by
his sisters’ nuptial torches, for some sign—
so certain that it could not be denied—
that he indeed was born of Phoebus’ line.
Clymene—though it is not clear if she
was swayed by Phaethon’s appeal or felt
more rage at the foul charge against herself—
stretched out both arms to heaven; as she turned
her eyes to the bright sun, Clymene cried:
“By all the radiance and light of one
who sees and hears us now, I swear, dear son,
that you are born of this same Sun who stands
before you as the world’s great guardian.
If what I say is false, then let this be
the last time that I gaze at him, indeed
the last time that I see a new day dawn.
But you yourself can see your father’s house:
the place from which he rises lies quite close
to our own land. So Phaethon, you can,
if you so wish, go there yourself and ask
the Sun directly for the proof you want.”
He leaps with joy—he’s heard his mother’s words:
imagining the sky, his mind is stirred.
He crosses his own Ethiopia;
he passes India, the land that lies
beneath the solar fires of the sky;
and soon the boy has reached the very place
from which his father rises: Phoebus’ palace.
Latin [763–79]