Val van Phaëthon

A muscular man plunges headfirst through the air, his body rendered in a dramatic, foreshortened pose. Above him, fragments of the sun chariot and panicked horses scatter across the sky, while below, a city burns from the heat of his failed flight. This circular composition captures the chaotic climax of the myth where hubris leads to a literal and metaphorical downfall.

In Western esoteric and Neoplatonic thought, Phaethon represents the 'precipitous soul' that attempts to grasp divine secrets or celestial power without requisite spiritual maturity. It serves as a moral emblem of the dangers of imbalanced ambition and the consequences of deviating from the 'middle way' between heaven and earth.