 It was sometimes referred to as "the people's opera", just as Lully's "Isis" came to be called "the musician's opera" (because of its score), and his "Atys", as "the king's opera" (one of Louis XIV's favorite works).Phaëton, the prideful and reckless son of the Sun and the ocean nymph Clymene, is driven to abandon his lover Theona by his ambition for the hand of Libya, daughter of the king of Egypt.On the day of the wedding, Libya's enraged lover Epaphus, himself the son of Jupiter, disputes Phaëton's claim to divine lineage.