Phaeton (carriage) Roger Button, Benjamin's father, owns a phaeton that is his primary mode of transportation until Benjamin buys the first automobile in Baltimore. In Susannah Kells' novel "Fallen Angels", a phaeton is the transportation of choice for the main character, Campion, who later crashes the carriage in a perfect example of its dangerous and fickle reputation. The character Mr. Spenlow from the novel "David Copperfield" dies suddenly of a heart attack while driving his phaeton home. Henry James, in his short story "An International Episode" (1878) has Lord Lambeth driven through town in "a little basket-phaeton" by his companion Bessie Aldon.
The Fall of Phaeton (Rubens) and day cycle becomes disrupted. The great astrological circle that arches the heavens is also disrupted. The assemblage of bodies form a diagonal oval in the center, separating dark and light sides of the canvas. The bodies are arranged so as to assist the viewer’s travel continually around that oval. Rubens painted "The Fall of Phaeton" in Rome and the painting was probably reworked later around 1606/1608. It has been housed in the National Gallery of Art since 5 January 1990. Rubens also painted other Greek mythological subjects, such as "The Fall of Icarus", "Perseus Freeing Andromeda", and "The Judgement