The horses are affrighted, and, making a bound in the
opposite direction, they shake the yoke from their necks, and
disengage themselves from the torn harness. In one place lie the
reins, in another the axle-tree wrenched from the pole, in another
part are the spokes of the broken wheels, and _the fragments of the
chariot torn in pieces are scattered far and wide_. But Pha?ton, the
flames consuming his _yellow_ hair, _is hurled headlong_, and is
borne in _a long track through the air_, as sometimes _a star is seen
to fall from the serene sky_, although it really has not fallen. Him
the great Eridanus receives in a part of the world far distant from
his country, and bathes his foaming face. The _Hesperian Naiads_
commit his body, smoking from the _three-forked_ flames, to the tomb,
and inscribe these verses on the stone: 'Here is Pha?ton buried, the
driver of his father's chariot, which, if he did not manage, still he
miscarried in a great attempt.'
"But his wretched father" (the Sun) "_had hidden his_
{p. 163}
_face overcast with bitter sorrow_, and, if only we can believe it,
they say that _one day passed without the sun_.
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