Phaethon Struck Down by Jupiter

Phaethon falls from the chariot of the sun after Jupiter intervenes with a thunderbolt. The chapter begins with his desire to prove his divine parentage: granted a request by the Sun, he insists on driving the celestial team despite his father's warnings. The horses escape his control, threatening the world below.

The illustration fixes the instant when aspiration turns into free fall, with the broken course of the chariot written across the sky. The text follows his death into the mourning of his family and records competing accounts of his ancestry and the catastrophe. Those differences are part of the myth's history, rather than details to resolve by invention.

Historical context is adapted from the accompanying commentary by Antoine de La Barre de Beaumarchais. Its interpretations reflect the period in which the book was published.

This edition follows plate 8 in Le Temple des Muses. The complete historical page and its explanatory text remain available in the source record. Source attribution: Bernard Picart and other engravers, Le Temple des Muses (1749 edition). Museum date: 1749 (publication). Source medium: Engraving, inner pictorial scene. Source portfolio: Le Temple des Muses, plate 8.

The inner illustration has been straightened and extracted from its surrounding engraved frame, caption and paper. The comparison shows that extracted engraving beside Surrealium's contemporary colour interpretation.

Surrealium's contemporary AI-assisted colour interpretation takes this print as its starting point. The colours are interpretive choices made for this edition.

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