June 17: World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

Climate change and human interference are seen as the major causes of desertification. The ancient Greeks concretised this in the tale of young Phaiton. In a fit of youthful arrogance, he had gone for a joyride with the sun chariot of his father Helios. The sun cart crashed somewhere in North Africa, scorching the land and the people who lived there. Phaiton himself tumbled into the Eridanos river. His best friend Kyknos witnessed the disaster and burst into lamentation. His cries became his swan’s song… as “plumes concealed his hair, a slender neck extended from his breast… Wings grew from his sides, and from his mouth was made a blunted beak.” Kyknos’ transformation went unnoticed and his mother Hyrie would look for him for weeks. (In the end, she melted away in tears, and these formed lake Hyria, now Lysimachia, in Western Greece.) Surrounded by fire, the swan Kyknos (hence “Cygne” in French), dove into the river where his friend drowned, and his PTSD explains why a swan will never stray far from the water’s edge.

Phaeton falls into the Eridanus river, Hendrik Goltzius, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins, Strassbourg, France

Fall of Phaethon, sarcophagus, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Did you know?

• As children of Helios are mentioned: Kirke, Pasiphae, Aietes and Perses with the Oceanid Persis. With the Oceanid Klymene he had – besides Phaiton – the Heliades: Lampetiè, Phaetousa, Aigle, Phoebe, Merope, Helia, Dioxippe and Aitheria.