Who usurps his place there, rashest? Aphrodite's loved one it is! To his son the flaming Sun-God, to the tender youth, Phaethon, Rule of day this day surrenders as a thing hereditary, Having sworn by Styx tremendous, for the proof of his parentage, He would grant his son's petition, whatsoever the sign thereof. Then, rejoiced, the stripling answered: 'Rule of day give me; give it me, 'Give me place that men may see me how I blaze, and transcendingly, 'I, divine, proclaim my birthright.' Darkened Helios, his utterance Choked prophetic: 'O half mortal!' he exclaimed in an agony, 'O lost son of mine! lost son! No! put a prayer for another thing: 'Not for this: insane to wish it, and to crave the gift impious! 'Cannot other gifts my godhead shed upon thee? miraculous 'Mighty gifts to prove a blessing, that to earth thou shalt be a joy? 'Gifts of healing, wherewith men walk as the Gods beneficently; 'As a God to sway to concord hearts of men, reconciling them; 'Gifts of verse, the lyre, the laurel, therewithal that thine origin 'Shall be known even as when _I_ strike on the string'd shell with melody, 'And the golden notes, like medicine, darting straight to the cavities, 'Fill them up, till hearts of men bound as the billows, the ships thereon.' Thus intently urged the Sun-God; but the force of his eloquence Was the pressing on of sea-waves scattered broad from the rocks away. What shall move a soul from madness? Lost, lost in delirium, Rock-fast, the adolescent to his father, irreverent, 'By the oath! the oath! thine oath!' cried. The effulgent foreseër then, Quivering in his loins parental, on the boy's beaming countenance Looked and moaned, and urged him for love's sake, for sweet life's sake, to yield the claim, To abandon his mad hunger, and avert the calamity. But he, vehement, passionate, called out: 'Let me show I am what I say, 'That the taunts I hear be silenced: I am stung with their whispering. 'Only, Thou, my Father, Thou tell how aloft the revolving wheels, 'How aloft the cleaving horse-crests I may guide peremptorily, 'Till I drink the shadows, fire-hot, like a flower celestial, 'And my fellows see me curbing the fierce steeds, the dear dew-drinkers: 'Yea, for this I gaze on life's light; throw for this any sacrifice.'