Phaethon \Pha"["e]*thon\, n. [L., Pha["e]thon (in sense 1), fr. Gr. ?, fr. ?, ?, to shine. See Phantom.]

1. (Class. Myth.) The son of Helios (Ph[oe]bus), that is, the son of light, or of the sun. He is fabled to have obtained permission to drive the chariot of the sun, in doing which his want of skill would have set the world on fire, had he not been struck with a thunderbolt by Jupiter, and hurled headlong into the river Po.

2. (Zo["o]l.) A genus of oceanic birds including the tropic birds.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)