The myth in which the God Phaethon features is among the most dramatic. According to legend Clymene, the ex-wife of Merops King of the Ethiopians had a son with Helios and in due course Phaethon wanted to know more about who he was and was told by his mother to go ask his father, Helios the Sun God. 

After travelling east he found Helios’ palace. Helios recognised the boy and invited him to choose a gift from his possessions. Phaethon saw his father's great chariot and the fiery horses and asked if he might go for a drive for a day on his own. Helios said no, but Phaethon next morning was awake first and harnessed up the horses and charged into the sky.

Within moments the horses bolted and the chariot careered out of control. Africa was frazzled, the lands turned to desert, the vegetation caught fire and the people turned black.
    Had Zeus not fired a thunderbolt at Phaethon and felled him, the world would have caught fire. Helios reined-in the horses, but Phaethon fell into the Eridanos and his sisters wept for him until they turned into trees, from which amber is distilled today. 

Dramatic, but this myth may explain more some cataclysmic event, rather than grand chariot theft. Perhaps even a comet strike - the Sun God's chariot careering through the African skies might fit this description.

To date no team member has seen enough of Phaethon to give a detailed description. Always he appears in the form of light. His voice is soft but deep. 

 “I am the great Phaethon, a powerful God who is not well known but will become so. I can be fierce if angered, yet gentle when I wish. Mortals are beginning to realise that I exist." 

'...I didn't see him but there was a mist, like a white sea fog mist, in the middle of which was a VERY bright light which spread out and the rays went through the mist but didn’t clear it, the mist remained. It was very beautiful but very eerie. Then the light changed to vertical streaks of blue, mauve and deeper violet and brilliant white light, alternating streaks.

"Like the others I now have many temples. Many in Africa and India. I compare all the false religions with the true one and even as a great God I cannot understand the stupidity of man. Your world, slowly, very slowly is returning to how it should be. You do not see much improvement yet, but in time you will. Many faiths are crumbling and many industries that do so much harm. 

I now shall take the priestess for a small test to prove much to me about you.”
'... He pulled me to a very very bright place. I don’t know where, but I was dazzled by the light. Through the light there came shafts, thin shafts of vivid blue light, they appeared like knitting needles with very sharp points. They came in their hundreds at my body, like little daggers, making me jump around. Then it stopped and they went and there was just the bright light and silence. 
    All of a sudden it started again, then stopped, then I heard his voice. “The gifts you are given are being used, whether it be strength or courage, wisely. This I am pleased about. I give you the gift of the three Ps. Power, patience and perseverance."
    I was floating in his light. It dimmed a little so it didn’t dazzle me. I couldn’t have taken it as it was at first. Phaethon spoke through the light: 

"In my temples there are members of the congregation who are questioning their faith. In one, a man goes from statue to statue and has renamed them. One he calls the God of the Sun, another a Moon Goddess and another he calls the Goddess of fate. He does not yet realise there is more than one. In that temple this is a start. I am pleased with this development.

You have seen the ruins of great temples that once were ours. Yet look at them now with the knowledge that they will all be rebuilt. For you mortals quite a few years ahead. To us great and mighty ones, a few moments.” 

The light simply vanished and I was somewhere in the open and there were olive trees all around, so guessed I was in Greece. I leaned against one tree and felt great power surging through me. I stayed for a few moments, the sun was warm. 
    There was a gentle breeze rustling the leaves.

"I now return you. I am pleased.”

Festival of Phaethon:19th July