Star Lore Phaeton

Phaeton is a feature related to the constellation Eridanus. In the 16th century it was sometimes presented as an independent constellation.

In Greek mythology, Phaeton was the son of the Sun God Helios. His story is closely related to the constellation Eridanus. One day, Phaeton begged his father Helios to let him ride the sun chariot. Helios urged him to be cautious, but Phaeton lost control of the chariot and veered so wildly in different directions, that both heaven and earth caught fire. Zeus brought an end to the ordeal, striking Phaethon with a thunderbolt and have him crash down to earth. Eridanus is the river carved by Phaeton during his out-of-control ride. In Ptolemy's days, the constellation Eridanus ended at a star now called Acamar (θ Eri). Thus, this star is considered Phaeton's final crash site.

Phaeton in the ceiling fresco of Villa Farnese, 1575; atlascoelestis.com

Early depictions of Eridanus show an old man in a river. Istead. in 1482, Erhard Ratdolt in his illustrations to Hyginus' De Astronomica shows a young person (according to "Astronomie in Nürnberg" a naked man) swimming in a river. Other artists adopted this concept and in 1540, Petrus Apianus placed a similar figure with more feminine features in his Astronomicum Caesareum. Apianus' woman was placed between Acamar (θ Eridani) - at Ptolemy's time the end of the river Eridanus and a star now called Theemin (υ2 Eridani) - a star that Ptolemy called hē kampē, the bend in the river. As this location was Phaeton's mythical crash site, the figure was soon associated with Phaeton, rather than Eridanus. atlascoelestis.com explains that "... Phaeton is generally represented by the figure of a young man but in some cases it assumes feminine features."

De Astronomica, 1482

Astronomicum Caesareum, 1540

In the second half of the 16th century, the figure evolved further and really became Phaeton. The ceiling fresco in Villa Farnese (see picture above) and a fresco in Palazzo Besta (see right), both in Italy, actually show Phaeton and the chariot falling from the sky. The fresco in Palazzo Besta actually shows both the crashing Phaeton and the swimming woman, supporting the idea that the "woman in the river" was always meant to be Eridanus and not Phaeton and that Phaeton never was an independent constellation but just an illustrated chapter in the story of Eridanus.

Phaeton in the ceiling fresco of Villa Farnese, 1575; atlascoelestis.com

Sources: John C. Barentine: Uncharted Constellations, atlascoelestis.com Aside from once almost having been a constellation, Phaeton has two other places in astronomy: Phaëthon - the hypothetical planet After the discovery of the first asteroids in 1801, a theory evolved that the objects in the asteroid belt were remnants of a destroyed planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. In 1823, German linguist J.G. Radlof called the hypothetical planet Phaëthon. Today, astronomers believe that the objects in the asteroid belt are remains of the protoplanetary disk that - due to the disrupting gravitational forces of Jupiter - never had a chance to become a planet. Source: Wikipedia Φαέθων - the real planet Today, the five planets known in ancient times are known by the names the Romans gave them. In ancient Greece, they carried the names of the equivalent gods in Greek mythology - with one exception: Mercury was Hermes, Venus was Aphrodite Terra, Mars was Arēs and Saturn was Cronion. (Saturn was also known as Phainon). Jupiter, however, was not called Zeus but Phaethon (Φαέθων) - the shining one or the blazing star. Source: Wikipedia

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