Page 33 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

Phaethon’s blunder

In uncovering the deeper cultural roots of weather and climate engineering, it
is instructive to consider the wisdom invested in mythological stories, since
whether we realize it or not, much of Western civilization rests on these founda-
tions. In Greek mythology, the youth Phaethon lost control of the Sun chariot,
and his recklessness caused extensive damage to the Earth before Zeus shot him
out of the sky. The story began when Phaethon, mocked by a schoolmate for
claiming to be the son of Helios, asked his mother, Clymene, for proof of his
heavenly birth. She sent him east toward the sunrise to the awe-inspiring palace
of the Sun god in India. Helios received the youth warmly and granted him a
wish. Phaethon immediately asked his father to be permitted for one day to drive
the chariot of the Sun, causing Helios to repent of his promise, since the path of
the zodiac was steep and treacherous and the horses were difficult, if not impos-
sible, to control. Helios replied prophetically, “Beware, my son, lest I be the
donor of a fatal gift; recall your request while yet you may. . . . It is not honor, but
1
destruction you seek. . . . I beg you to choose more wisely.” But the youth held to
his demand, and Helios honored his promise. At the break of dawn, the horses
were harnessed to the resplendent Sun chariot, and Helios, with a foreboding
sigh, urged his son to spare the whip, hold tight the reins, and “keep within the
limit of the middle zone,” neither too far south or north, nor too high or low:
“The middle course is safest and best” (63).
Now Phaethon spared the whip; that was not the problem. A bigger problem
was that the youth was a lightweight (literally) and the horses sensed this, “and as
a ship without ballast is tossed hither and thither on the sea, so the chariot, with-
out its accustomed weight, was dashed about as if empty” (64). Also Phaethon
was a completely inexperienced driver without a clue as to the proper route to
take: “He is alarmed, and knows not how to guide them; nor, if he knew, has he
the power” (64). The chariot veered out of the zodiac, with hapless Phaethon
looking down on the vast expanse of the Earth, growing pale and shaking with
terror. He repented of his request, but it was too late. The chariot was borne
along “like a vessel that flies before a tempest,” and Phaethon, losing control com-
pletely, dropped the reins. So much for the middle course:

The horses, when they felt them loose on their backs, dashed headlong, and unre-
strained went off into unknown regions of the sky, in among the stars, hurling
the chariot over pathless places, now up in the high heaven, now down almost to
earth. . . . The clouds begin to smoke, and the mountain tops take fire; the fields are
parched with heat, the plants wither, the trees with their leafy branches burn, the

16 | StorieS of Control