1600ca. The Fall of Phaeton - etching - 17.5 x 25.2 cm - Washington DC, NGA

Phaeton tumbles headlong from a shattered golden chariot as his four horses scatter in panic through thick clouds of smoke. On the left, the giant Atlas groans under the weight of the heavens, which are scorched by the sun's proximity, while the landscape below is consumed by fire. In the foreground, river gods and nymphs recoil in terror as the heat dries up the waters.

In the early modern period, the myth of Phaeton was frequently used as a Neoplatonic allegory for the soul's failed ascent and the dangers of 'intellectual hubris' or seeking divine knowledge without proper preparation. It also served as a cosmological illustration of a world-ending conflagration (ecpyrosis), a concept found in Stoic and Hermetic thought regarding the cyclic destruction and renewal of the universe by fire.