Helios figures prominently in several works of Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, in which he is often described as the son of theTitansHyperion andTheia and brother of the goddessesSelene (the Moon) andEos (the Dawn). Helios's most notable role in Greek mythology is the story of his mortal sonPhaethon.[2] In theHomeric epics, his most notable role is the one he plays in theOdyssey, whereOdysseus's men despite his warnings impiously kill and eat Helios'ssacred cattle that the god kept atThrinacia, his sacred island. Once informed of their misdeed, Helios, in wrath, asks Zeus to punish those who wronged him, and Zeus, agreeing, strikes their ship with a thunderbolt, killing everyone except Odysseus himself, the only one who had not harmed the cattle and was allowed to live.[3]
Due to his position as the sun, he was believed to be an all-seeing witness and thus was often invoked in oaths. He also played a significant part in ancient magic and spells. In art he is usually depicted as a beardless youth in achiton holding a whip and driving hisquadriga, accompanied by various other celestial gods such asSelene,Eos, or the stars. In ancient times he was worshipped in several places of ancient Greece, though his major cult centres were the island ofRhodes, of which he was the patron god,Corinth, and the greaterCorinthia region. TheColossus of Rhodes, a gigantic statue of the god, adorned the port of Rhodes until it was destroyed in an earthquake.
Helios (far right) in a Phaethon sarcophagus, detail, marble, third century AD,Verona,Italy.
The Greek nounἥλιος (GENἡλίου,DATἡλίῳ,ACCἥλιον,VOCἥλιε) (from earlierἁϝέλιος/hāwelios/) is the inherited word for theSun fromProto-Indo-European*seh₂u-el[4] which is cognate withLatinsol,Sanskritsurya,Old Englishswegl,Old Norsesól,Welshhaul,Avestanhvar, etc.[5][6] TheDoric andAeolic form of the name isἍλιος,Hálios. InHomeric Greek his name is spelledἨέλιος,Ēélios, with the Doric spelling of that beingἈέλιος,Aélios. In Cretan it wasἈβέλιος (Abélios) orἈϝέλιος (Awélios).[7] The Greek view of gender was also present in their language.Ancient Greek had three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), so when an object or a concept was personified as a deity, it inherited the gender of the relevant noun;helios is a masculine noun, so the god embodying it is also by necessity male.[8] The female offspring of Helios were calledHeliades, the maleHeliadae.
The author of theSuda lexicon tried to etymologically connectἥλιος to the wordἀολλίζεσθαι,aollízesthai, "coming together" during the daytime, or perhaps fromἀλεαίνειν,aleaínein, "warming".[9]Plato in his dialogueCratylus suggested several etymologies for the word, proposing among others a connection, via the Doric form of the wordhalios, to the wordsἁλίζειν,halízein, meaning collecting men when he rises, or from the phraseἀεὶ εἱλεῖν,aeí heileín, "ever turning" because he always turns the earth in his course.
Doric Greek retained Proto-Greek long *ā asα, while Attic changed it in most cases, including in this word, toη.Cratylus and the etymologies Plato gives are contradicted by modern scholarship.[10] Fromhelios comes the modern English prefixhelio-, meaning "pertaining to the Sun", used in compounds word such asheliocentrism,aphelion,heliotropium,heliophobia (fear of the sun) andheliolatry ("sun-worship").[11]
Helios most likely is Proto-Indo-European in origin.Walter Burkert wrote that "... Helios, the sun god, andEos-Aurora, thegoddess of the dawn, are of impeccable Indo-European lineage both in etymology and in their status as gods" and might have played a role in Proto-Indo-European poetry.[12] The imagery surrounding a chariot-driving solar deity is likelyIndo-European in origin.[13][14][15] Greek solar imagery begins with the gods Helios and Eos, who are brother and sister, and who become in the day-and-night-cycle the day (hemera) and the evening (hespera), as Eos accompanies Helios in his journey across the skies. At night, he pastures his steeds and travels east in a golden boat. In them evident is the Indo-European grouping of a sun god and his sister, as well as an association with horses.[16]
Helen of Troy's name is thought to share the same etymology as Helios,[17][18][19] and she may express an early alternate personification of the sun among Hellenic peoples. Helen might have originally been considered to be a daughter of the Sun, as she hatched from anegg and was given tree worship, features associated with the Proto-Indo-European Sun Maiden;[20] in surviving Greek tradition however Helen is never said to be Helios's daughter, instead being the daughter ofZeus.[21]
It has been suggested that thePhoenicians brought over the cult of their patron godBaal among others (such asAstarte) toCorinth, who was then continued to be worshipped under the native name/god Helios, similarly to how Astarte was worshipped asAphrodite, and the PhoenicianMelqart was adopted as thesea-godMelicertes/Palaemon, who also had a significant cult in theisthmus of Corinth.[22]
Helios's journey on a chariot during the day and travel with a boat in the ocean at night possibly reflects theEgyptian sun godRa sailing across the skies in abarque to be reborn at dawn each morning anew; additionally, both gods, being associated with the sun, were seen as the "Eye of Heaven".[23]
Bust of the sun-god Helios, second century AD; the holes were used for the attachment of a sun ray crown,Ancient Agora Museum,Athens, Greece.
Helios is the son ofHyperion andTheia,[24][25][26] or Euryphaessa,[27] or Basileia,[28] and the only brother of the goddesses Eos and Selene. If the order of mention of the three siblings is meant to be taken as their birth order, then out of the four authors that give him and his sisters a birth order, two make him the oldest child, one the middle, and the other the youngest.[b] Helios was not among the regular and more prominent deities, rather he was a more shadowy member of the Olympian circle,[30] despite the fact that he was among the most ancient.[31] From his lineage, Helios might be described as a second generation Titan.[32] He is associated with harmony and order, both literally in the sense of the movement of celestial bodies and metaphorically in the sense of bringing order to society.[33]
Helios is usually depicted as a handsome young man crowned with the shiningaureole of the Sun, which traditionally had twelve rays, symbolising the twelve months of the year.[34] Beyond his Homeric Hymn, not many texts describe his physical appearance;Euripides describes him asρυσωπός (khrysо̄pós) meaning "golden-eyed/faced" or "beaming like gold",[35]Mesomedes ofCrete writes that he has golden hair,[36] andApollonius Rhodius that he has light-emitting, golden eyes.[37] According toAugustan poetOvid, he dressed intyrian purple robes and sat on a throne of brightemeralds.[38] In ancient artefacts (such as coins, vases, or reliefs) he is presented as a beautiful, full-faced youth[39] with wavy hair,[40] wearing a crown adorned with the sun's rays.[41]
Helios is said to drive a golden chariot drawn by four horses:[42][43] Pyrois ("The Fiery One", not to be confused withPyroeis, one of thefive naked-eye planets known toancient Greek and Roman astronomers), Aeos ("He of the Dawn"),Aethon ("Blazing"), and Phlegon ("Burning").[44] In a Mithraic invocation, Helios's appearance is given as thus:
A god is then summoned. He is described as "a youth, fair to behold, with fiery hair, clothed in a white tunic and a scarlet cloak and wearing a fiery crown." He is named as "Helios, lord of heaven and earth, god of gods."[45]
As mentioned above, the imagery surrounding a chariot-driving solar deity is likelyIndo-European in origin and is common to both early Greek and Near Eastern religions.[46][47]
Helios is seen as both a personification of the Sun and the fundamental creative power behind it,[48] and as a result is often worshiped as a god of life and creation. His literal "light" is often assorted with a metaphorical vitality,[49] and other ancient texts give him the epithet "gracious" (ἱλαρός). Thecomic playwrightAristophanes describes Helios as "the horse-guider, who fills the plain of the earth with exceeding bright beams, a mighty deity among gods and mortals."[50] One passage recorded in theGreek Magical Papyri says of Helios, "the earth flourished when you shone forth and made the plants fruitful when you laughed and brought to life the living creatures when you permitted."[13] He is said to have helped create animals out of primeval mud.[51]
Helios and Selene, by Johann Rathausky, fountain group statue inOpatija,Croatia.
Helios was envisioned as a god driving his chariot from east to west each day, rising from theOceanus River and setting in the west under the earth. It is unclear as to whether this journey means that he travels throughTartarus.[52]
Helios the rising Sun, painting on aterracotta disk, 480 BC, Agora Museum Athens
Athenaeus in hisDeipnosophistae relates that, at the hour of sunset, Helios climbs into a great cup of solid gold in which he passes from the Hesperides in the farthest west to the land of the Ethiops, with whom he passes the dark hours. According to Athenaeus,Mimnermus said that in the night Helios travels eastwards with the use of a bed (also created by Hephaestus) in which he sleeps, rather than a cup,[53] as attested in theTitanomachy in the 8th century BCE.[52]Aeschylus describes the sunset as such:
"There [is] the sacred wave, and the coralled bed of theErythræan Sea, and [there] the luxuriant marsh of the Ethiopians, situated near the ocean, glitters like polished brass; where daily in the soft and tepid stream, the all-seeing Sun bathes his undying self, and refreshes his weary steeds."
Athenaeus adds that "Helios gained a portion of toil for all his days", as there is no rest for either him or his horses.[55]
Although the chariot is usually said to be the work ofHephaestus,[56][57]Hyginus states that it was Helios himself who built it.[58] His chariot is described as golden,[42] or occasionally "rosy",[36] and pulled by four white horses.[8][59][60][47] TheHorae, goddesses of the seasons, are part of his retinue and help him yoke his chariot.[61][62][63] His sister Eos is said to have not only opened the gates for Helios, but would often accompany him as well.[64] In the extreme east and west were said to be people who tended to his horses, for whom summer was perpetual and fruitful.[40]
On several instances in mythology the normal solar schedule is disrupted; he was ordered not to rise for three days during the conception ofHeracles, and made the winter days longer in order to look uponLeucothoe.Athena's birth was a sight so impressive that Helios halted his steeds and stayed still in the sky for a long while,[65] as heaven and earth both trembling at the newborn goddess' sight.[66]
In theIliad,Hera who supports the Greeks, makes him set earlier than usual against his will during battle,[67] and later still during the same war, after his sister Eos's sonMemnon was killed, she made him downcast, causing his light to fade, so she could be able to freely steal her son's body undetected by the armies, as he consoled his sister in her grief over Memnon's death.[68]
It was said that summer days are longer due to Helios often stopping his chariot mid-air to watch from above nymphs dancing during the summer,[69][70] and sometimes he is late to rise because he lingers with his consort.[71] If the other gods wish so, Helios can be hastened on his daily course when they wish it to be night.[72]
When Zeus desired to sleep withAlcmene, he made one night last threefold, hiding the light of the Sun, by ordering Helios not to rise for those three days.[73][74] Satirical authorLucian ofSamosata dramatized this myth in one of hisDialogues of the Gods.[75][c]
While Heracles was travelling to Erytheia to retrieve the cattle ofGeryon for his tenth labour, he crossed the Libyan desert and was so frustrated at the heat that he shot an arrow at Helios, the Sun. Almost immediately, Heracles realized his mistake and apologized profusely (Pherecydes wrote that Heracles stretched his arrow at him menacingly, but Helios ordered him to stop, and Heracles in fear desisted[53]); In turn and equally courteous, Helios granted Heracles the golden cup which he used to sail across the sea every night, from the west to the east because he found Heracles's actions immensely bold. In the versions delivered by Apollodorus and Pherecydes, Heracles was onlyabout to shoot Helios, but according toPanyassis, hedid shoot and wounded the god.[77]
Helios and Eos, carried by the morning dew, above them the god of heaven. Relief from the armor of the statue of Augustus in the Vatican, 1890.
Solar eclipses were phaenomena of fear as well as wonder in Ancient Greece, and were seen as the Sun abandoning humanity.[78] According to a fragment ofArchilochus, it is Zeus who blocks Helios and makes him disappear from the sky.[79] In one of hispaeans, the lyric poet Pindar describes a solar eclipse as the Sun's light being hidden from the world, a bad omen of destruction and doom:[80]
Beam of the sun! What have you contrived, observant one, mother of eyes, highest star, in concealing yourself in broad daylight? Why have you made helpless men's strength and the path of wisdom, by rushing down a dark highway? Do you drive a stranger course than before? In the name of Zeus, swift driver of horses, I beg you, turn the universal omen, lady, into some painless prosperity for Thebes ... Do you bring a sign of some war or wasting of crops or a mass of snow beyond telling or ruinous strife or emptying of the sea on land or frost on the earth or a rainy summer flowing with raging water, or will you flood the land and create a new race of men from the beginning?
"Pyrois" redirects here. For the moth, seePyrois (moth).
The Horses of Helios, Westminster, London.
Some lists, cited by Hyginus, of the names of horses that pulled Helios's chariot, are as follows. Scholarship acknowledges that, despite differences between the lists, the names of the horses always seem to refer to fire, flame, light and other luminous qualities.[82]
According toEumelus of Corinth – late 7th/ early 6th century BC: The male trace horses are Eous (by him the sky is turned) and Aethiops (as if flaming, parches the grain) and the female yoke-bearers are Bronte ("Thunder") and Sterope ("Lightning").
According to Ovid — Roman, 1st century BCPhaethon's ride: Pyrois ("the fiery one"), Eous ("he of the dawn"),Aethon ("blazing"), and Phlegon ("burning").[83][84]
Hyginus writes that according to Homer, the horses' names are Abraxas and Therbeeo; but Homer makes no mention of horses or chariot.[83]
Alexander of Aetolia, cited in Athenaeus, related that the magical herb grew on the islandThrinacia, which was sacred to Helios, and served as a remedy against fatigue for the sun god's horses.Aeschrion of Samos informed that it was known as the "dog's-tooth" and was believed to have been sown by Cronus.[85]
Silvertetradrachm ofRhodes showing Helios and a rose (205-190 BC, 13.48 g)
According to Pindar,[86] when the gods divided the earth among them, Helios was absent, and thus he got no lot of land. He complained to Zeus about it, who offered to do the division of portions again, but Helios refused the offer, for he had seen anew land emerging from the deep of the sea; a rich, productive land for humans and good for cattle too. Helios asked for this island to be given to him, and Zeus agreed to it, withLachesis (one of the threeFates) raising her hands to confirm the oath. Alternatively in another tradition, it was Helios himself who made the island rise from the sea when he caused the water which had overflowed it to disappear.[87] He named it Rhodes, after his loverRhode (the daughter ofPoseidon and Aphrodite[88] orAmphitrite[89]), and it became the god's sacred island, where he was honoured above all other gods. With Rhode Helios sired seven sons, known as theHeliadae ("sons of the Sun"), who became the first rulers of the island, as well as one daughter,Electryone.[87] Three of their grandsons founded the citiesIalysos,Camiros andLindos on the island, named after themselves;[86] thus Rhodes came to belong to him and his line, with the autochthonous peoples of Rhodes claiming descend from the Heliadae.[90]
Clymene urges Phaethon to find his father, 1589 engraving byHendrik Goltzius.
The most well known story about Helios is the one involving his sonPhaethon, who asked him to drive his chariot for a single day. Although all versions agree that Phaethon eventually got to drive Helios's chariot, and that he failed in his task with disastrous results, there are a great number of details that vary by version, including the identity of Phaethon's mother, the location the story takes place, the role Phaethon's sisters theHeliades play, the motivation behind Phaethon's decision to ask his father Helios for such thing, and even the exact relation between the god and the mortals involved.
Traditionally, Phaethon was Helios's son by the Oceanid nymphClymene,[91] or alternatively Rhode[92] or the otherwise unknown Prote.[93] In one version of the story, Phaethon is Helios's grandson, rather than son, through the boy's fatherClymenus. In this version, Phaethon's mother is an Oceanid nymph named Merope.[94]
In Euripides's lost playPhaethon, surviving only in twelve fragments, Phaethon is the product of an illicit liaison between his mother Clymene (who is now married toMerops, the king ofAethiopia) and Helios, though she claimed that her lawful husband was the father of her all her children.[95][96] Clymene reveals the truth to her son, and urges him to travel east to get confirmation from his father after she informs him that Helios promised to grant their child any wish when he slept with her. Although reluctant at first, Phaethon is convinced and sets on to find his birth father.[97] In a surviving fragment from the play, Helios accompanies his son in his ill-fated journey in the skies, trying to give him instructions on how to drive the chariot while he rides on a spare horse named Sirius,[98] as someone, perhaps apaedagogus informs Clymene of Phaethon's fate, who is probably accompanied by slave women:
Phaethon meets the Sun, engraving for theMetamorphoses.
Take, for instance, that passage in which Helios, in handing the reins to his son, says—
"Drive on, but shun the burningLibyan tract; The hot dry air will let thine axle down: Toward the sevenPleiades keep thy steadfast way."
And then—
"This said, his son undaunted snatched the reins, Then smote the winged coursers' sides: they bound Forth on the void and cavernous vault of air. His father mounts another steed, and rides With warning voice guiding his son. 'Drive there! Turn, turn thy car this way."
If this messenger did witness the flight himself, it is possible there was also a passage where he described Helios taking control over the bolting horses in the same manner asLucretius described.[100] Phaethon inevitably dies; a fragment near the end of the play has Clymene order the slave girls hide Phaethon's still-smouldering body from Merops, and laments Helios's role in her son's death, saying he destroyed him and her both.[101] Near the end of the play it seems that Merops, having found out about Clymene's affair and Phaethon's true parentage, tries to kill her; her eventual fate is unclear, but it has been suggested she is saved by somedeus ex machina.[102] A number of deities have been proposed for the identity of this possible deus ex machina, with Helios among them.[102]
Helios and Phaethon with Saturn and the Four Seasons, byNicolas Poussin, oil on canvas
In Ovid's account, Zeus's sonEpaphus mocks Phaethon's claim that he is the son of the sun god; his mother Clymene tells Phaethon to go to Helios himself, to ask for confirmation of his paternity. Helios promises him on the riverStyx any gift that he might ask as a proof of paternity; Phaethon asks for the privilege to drive Helios's chariot for a single day. Although Helios warns his son of how dangerous and disastrous this would be, he is nevertheless unable to change Phaethon's mind or revoke his promise. Phaethon takes the reins, and the earth burns when he travels too low, and freezes when he takes the chariot too high. Zeus strikes Phaethon with lightning, killing him. Helios refuses to resume his job, but he returns to his task and duty at the appeal of the other gods, as well as Zeus's threats. He then takes his anger out on his four horses, whipping them in fury for causing his son's death.[103]
Nonnus ofPanopolis presented a slightly different version of the myth, narrated by Hermes; according to him, Helios met and fell in love with Clymene, the daughter of theOcean, and the two soon got married with her father's blessing. When he grows up, fascinated with his father's job, he asks him to drive his chariot for a single day. Helios does his best to dissuade him, arguing that sons are not necessarily fit to step into their fathers' shoes. But under pressure of Phaethon and Clymene's begging both, he eventually gives in. As per all other versions of the myth, Phaethon's ride is catastrophic and ends in his death.[104]
Phaethon in the chariot of the Sun, Godfried Maes, ca 1664-1700
Hyginus wrote that Phaethon secretly mounted his father's car without said father's knowledge and leave, but with the aid of his sisters the Heliades who yoked the horses.[105]
In all retellings, Helios recovers the reins in time, thus saving the earth.[106] Another consistent detail across versions are that Phaethon's sisters the Heliades mourn him by theEridanus and are turned into black poplar trees, who shed tears ofamber. According toQuintus Smyrnaeus, it was Helios who turned them into trees, for their honour to Phaethon.[107] In one version of the myth, Helios conveyed his dead son to the stars, as a constellation (theAuriga).[108]
But, Goddess, give up for good your great lamentation. You must not nurse in vain insatiable anger. Among the gods Aidoneus is not an unsuitable bridegroom, Commander-of-Many and Zeus's own brother of the same stock. As for honor, he got his third at the world's first division and dwells with those whose rule has fallen to his lot.
Helios is said to have seen and stood witness to everything that happened where his light shone. WhenHades abductsPersephone, Helios is the only one to witness it.[110]
In Ovid'sFasti, Demeter asks the stars first about Persephone's whereabouts, and it isHelice who advises her to go ask Helios. Demeter is not slow to approach him, and Helios then tells her not to waste time, and seek out for "the queen of the third world".[111]
Vulcan surprises Venus and Mars, byJohann Heiss (1679)
In another myth, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, but she cheated on him with his brotherAres, god of war. In Book Eight of theOdyssey, the blind singerDemodocus describes how the illicit lovers committed adultery, until one day Helios caught them in the act, and immediately informed Aphrodite's husband Hephaestus. Upon learning that, Hephaestus forged a net so thin it could hardly be seen, in order to ensnare them. He then announced that he was leaving forLemnos. Upon hearing that, Ares went to Aphrodite and the two lovers coupled.[112] Once again Helios informed Hephaestus, who came into the room and trapped them in the net. He then called the other gods to witness the humiliating sight.[113]
Much later versions add a young man to the story, a warrior namedAlectryon, tasked by Ares to stand guard should anyone approach. But Alectryon fell asleep, allowing Helios to discover the two lovers and inform Hephaestus. For this, Aphrodite hated Helios and his race for all time.[114] In some versions, she cursed his daughterPasiphaë to fall in love with theCretan Bull as revenge against him.[115][116] Pasiphaë's daughterPhaedra's passion for her step-sonHippolytus was also said to have been inflicted on her by Aphrodite for this same reason.[114]
Clytie turns into a sunflower as the Sun refuses to look at her, engraving byAbraham van Diepenbeeck.
Aphrodite aims to enact her revenge by making Helios fall for a mortal princess namedLeucothoe, forgetting his previous lover theOceanidClytie for her sake. Helios watches her from above, even making the winter days longer so he can have more time looking at her. Taking the form of her motherEurynome, Helios enters their palace, entering the girl's room before revealing himself to her.
However, Clytie informs Leucothoe's fatherOrchamus of this affair, and he buries Leucothoe alive in the earth. Helios comes too late to rescue her, so instead he poursnectar into the earth, and turns the dead Leucothoe into afrankincense tree. Clytie, spurned by Helios for her role in his lover's death, strips herself naked, accepting no food or drink, and sits on a rock for nine days, pining after him, until eventually turning into a purple, sun-gazing flower, theheliotrope.[117][118] This myth, it has been theorized, might have been used to explain the use offrankincensearomatic resin in Helios's worship.[119] Leucothoe being buried alive as punishment by a male guardian, which is not too unlikeAntigone's own fate, may also indicate an ancient tradition involvinghuman sacrifice in a vegetation cult.[119] At first the stories of Leucothoe and Clytie might have been two distinct myths concerning Helios which were later combined along with a third story, that of Helios discovering Ares and Aphrodite's affair and then informing Hephaestus, into a single tale either by Ovid himself or his source.[120]
InSophocles's playAjax,Ajax the Great, minutes before committing suicide, calls upon Helios to stop his golden reins when he reaches Ajax's native land ofSalamis and inform his aging fatherTelamon and his mother of their son's fate and death, and salutes him one last time before he kills himself.[121]
Helios sides with the other gods in several battles.[122] Surviving fragments fromTitanomachy imply scenes where Helios is the only one among the Titans to have abstained from attacking theOlympian gods,[123] and they, after the war was over, gave him a place in the sky and awarded him with his chariot.[124][125]
He also takes part in the Giant wars; it was said byPseudo-Apollodorus that during the battle of theGiants against the gods, the giantAlcyoneus stole Helios's cattle fromErytheia where the god kept them,[126] or alternatively, that it was Alcyoneus's very theft of the cattle that started the war.[127][128] Because theearth goddess Gaia, mother and ally of the Giants, learned of the prophecy that the giants would perish at the hand of a mortal, she sought to find a magical herb that would protect them and render them practically indestructible; thus Zeus ordered Helios, as well as his sisters Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) not to shine, and harvested all of the plant for himself, denying Gaia the opportunity to make the Giants immortal, while Athena summoned the mortal Heracles to fight by their side.[129]
At some point during the battle of gods and giants inPhlegra,[130] Helios takes up an exhausted Hephaestus on his chariot.[131] After the war ends, one of the giants,Picolous, flees toAeaea, where Helios's daughter, Circe, lived. He attempted to chase Circe away from the island, only to be killed by Helios.[132][133][134] From the blood of the slain giant that dripped on the earth a new plant was sprang, theherbmoly, named thus from the battle ("malos" inAncient Greek).[135]
A myth about the origin ofCorinth goes as such: Helios and Poseidon clashed as to who would get to have the city. TheHecatoncheir Briareos was tasked to settle the dispute between the two gods; he awarded theAcrocorinth to Helios, while Poseidon was given theisthmus of Corinth.[140][141]
Aelian wrote thatNerites was the son of the sea godNereus and the OceanidDoris. In the version where Nerites became the lover of Poseidon, it is said that Helios turned him into a shellfish, for reasons unknown. At first Aelian writes that Helios was resentful of the boy's speed, but when trying to explain why he changed his form, he suggests that perhaps Poseidon and Helios were rivals in love.[142][143]
In an Aesop fable, Helios and the north wind godBoreasargued about which one between them was the strongest god. They agreed that whoever was able to make a passing traveller remove his cloak would be declared the winner. Boreas was the one to try his luck first; but no matter how hard he blew, he could not remove the man's cloak, instead making him wrap his cloak around him even tighter. Helios shone bright then, and the traveller, overcome with the heat, removed his cloak, giving him the victory. The moral is that persuasion is better than force.[144]
Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun, byNicolas Poussin, 1658, oil on canvas
Relating to his nature as the Sun,[145] Helios was presented as a god who could restore and deprive people of vision, as it was regarded that his light that made the faculty of sight and enabled visible things to be seen.[146][147] In one myth, afterOrion was blinded by KingOenopion, he traveled to the east, where he met Helios. Helios then healed Orion's eyes, restoring his eyesight.[148]InPhineus's story, his blinding, as reported in Apollonius Rhodius'sArgonautica, was Zeus's punishment for Phineus revealing the future to mankind.[149] According, however, to one of the alternative versions, it was Helios who had deprived Phineus of his sight.[150]Pseudo-Oppian wrote that Helios's wrath was due to some obscure victory of the prophet; afterCalais and Zetes slew the Harpies tormenting Phineus, Helios then turned him into amole, a blind creature.[151] In yet another version, he blinded Phineus at the request of his son Aeëtes.[152]
The Fall of Icarus, ancient fresco from Pompeii, ca 40-79 AD
In another tale, the Athenian inventorDaedalus and his young sonIcarus fashioned themselves wings made of birds' feathers glued together with wax and flew away.[153] According to scholia on Euripides, Icarus, being young and rashful, thought himself greater than Helios. Angered, Helios hurled his rays at him, melting the wax and plunging Icarus into the sea to drown. Later, it was Helios who decreed that said sea would be named after the unfortunate youth, theIcarian Sea.[154][155]
Arge was a huntress who, while hunting down a particularly fast stag, claimed that fast as the Sun as it was, she would eventually catch up to it. Helios, offended by the girl's words, changed her shape into that of a doe.[156][157]
In one rare version ofSmyrna's tale, it was an angry Helios who cursed her to fall in love with her own fatherCinyras because of some unspecified offence the girl committed against him; in the vast majority of other versions however, the culprit behind Smyrna's curse is the goddess of love Aphrodite.[158]
Helios and chariot depicted on the dome of the entrance hall of theSzéchenyi Bath,Budapest
Helios is said to have kept his sheep and cattle on his sacred island ofThrinacia, or in some cases Erytheia.[159] Each flock numbers fifty beasts, totaling 350 cows and 350 sheep—the number of days of the year in the early Ancient Greek calendar; the seven herds correspond to theweek, containing seven days.[160] The cows did not breed or die.[161] In theHomeric Hymn 4 to Hermes, after Hermes has been brought before Zeus by an angry Apollo for stealing Apollo's sacred cows, the young god excuses himself for his actions and says to his father that "I reverence Helios greatly and the other gods".[162][163]
Augeas, who in some versions is his son, safe-keeps a herd of twelve bulls sacred to the god.[164] Moreover, it was said that Augeas's enormous herd of cattle was a gift to him by his father.[165]
Apollonia inIllyria was another place where he kept a flock of his sheep; a man namedPeithenius had been put in charge of them, but the sheep were devoured by wolves. The other Apolloniates, thinking he had been neglectful, gouged out Peithenius's eyes. Angered over the man's treatment, Helios made the earth grow barren and ceased to bear fruit; the earth grew fruitful again only after the Apolloniates had propitiated Peithenius by craft, and by two suburbs and a house he picked out, pleasing the god.[166] This story is also attested by Greek historianHerodotus, who calls the man Evenius.[167][168]
The companions of Odysseus rob the cattle of Helios, fresco by Palazzo Poggi, 1556.
During Odysseus's journey to get back home, he arrives at the island of Circe, who warns him not to touch Helios's sacred cows once he reaches Thrinacia, or the god would keep them from returning home. Though Odysseus warns his men, when supplies run short they kill and eat some of the cattle. The guardians of the island, Helios's daughters Phaethusa and Lampetia, tell their father about this. Helios then appeals to Zeus telling him to dispose of Odysseus's men, rejecting the crewmen's compensation of a new temple in Ithaca.[169] Zeus destroys the ship with his lightning bolt, killing all the men except for Odysseus.[170]
Bust of Helios in a clipeus, detail from a strigillated lenossarcophagus, white marble, early 3rd century CE, Tomb D in Via Belluzzo,Rome.
Helios is featured in several ofLucian's works beyond hisDialogues of the Gods. In another work of Lucian's,Icaromenippus [fi], Selene complains to thetitular character about philosophers wanting to stir up strife between herself and Helios.[171] Later he is seen feasting with the other gods on Olympus, and prompting Menippus to wonder how can night fall on the Heavens while he is there.[172]
The music of the spheres: the planetary spheres, among others, on an engraving from Renaissance Italy.
Diodorus Siculus recorded an unorthodox version of the myth, in which Basileia, who had succeeded her fatherUranus to his royal throne, married her brother Hyperion, and had two children, a son Helios and a daughter Selene. Because Basileia's other brothers envied these offspring, they put Hyperion to the sword and drowned Helios in the riverEridanus, while Selene took her own life. After the massacre, Helios appeared in a dream to his grieving mother and assured her and their murderers would be punished, and that he and his sister would now be transformed into immortal, divine natures; what was known asMene[173] would now be called Selene, and the "holy fire" in the heavens would bear his own name.[28][174]
It was said that Selene, when preoccupied with her passion for the mortal Endymion,[175] would give her moon chariot to Helios to drive it.[176]
Claudian wrote that in his infancy, Helios was nursed by his auntTethys.[177]
Pausanias writes that the people ofTitane held that Titan was a brother of Helios, the first inhabitant of Titane after whom the town was named;[178] Titan however was generally identified as Helios himself, instead of being a separate figure.[179]
According to sixth century BC lyric poetStesichorus, with Helios in his palace lives his motherTheia.[180]
In the myth of the dragonPython's slaying by Apollo, the slain serpent's corpse is said to have rotten in the strength of the "shining Hyperion".[181]
Helios, riding on a snake-drawn chariot, witnesses Medea killing her son on an altar, red-figure krater, detail, attributed to theUnderworld Painter, circa 330 - 310 BC,Staatliche Antikensammlung,Munich.
The god Helios is typically depicted as the head of a large family, and the places that venerated him the most would also typically claim both mythological and genealogical descent from him;[145] for example, the Cretans traced the ancestry of their kingIdomeneus to Helios through his daughter Pasiphaë.[182]
Traditionally the Oceanid nymphPerse was seen as the sun god's wife[183] by whom he had various children, most notablyCirce, Aeëtes,Minos's wife Pasiphaë,Perses, and in some versions the Corinthian kingAloeus.[184]Ioannes Tzetzes addsCalypso, otherwise the daughter ofAtlas, to the list of children Helios had by Perse, perhaps due to the similarities of the roles and personalities she and Circe display in theOdyssey as hosts of Odysseus.[185][AI-generated source?]
Helios rising in his quadriga; above Nyx driving away to the left and Eos to the right, and Heracles offering sacrifice at altar. Sappho painter, Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 500 BC
At some point Helios warned Aeëtes of a prophecy that stated he would suffer treachery from one of his own offspring (which Aeëtes took to mean his daughterChalciope and her children byPhrixus).[186][187] Helios also bestowed several gifts on his son, such as a chariot with swift steeds,[188] a golden helmet with four plates,[189] a giant's war armor,[190] and robes and a necklace as a pledge of fatherhood.[191] When his daughterMedea betrays him and flees withJason after stealing thegolden fleece, Aeëtes calls upon his father and Zeus to witness their unlawful actions against him and his people.[192]
As father of Aeëtes, Helios was also the grandfather of Medea and would play a significant role in Euripides's rendition of her fate inCorinth. When Medea offers PrincessGlauce the poisoned robes and diadem, she says they were gifts to her from Helios.[193] Later, after Medea has caused the deaths of Glauce and KingCreon, as well as her own children, Helios helps her escape Corinth and her husband.[194][195] InSeneca'srendition of the story, a frustrated Medea criticizes the inaction of her grandfather, wondering why he has not darkened the sky at sight of such wickedness, and asks from him his fiery chariot so she can burn Corinth to the ground.[196][197]
InNonnus's account from theDionysiaca, Helios and the nymph Clymene met and fell in love with each other in the mythical island of Kerne and got married.[199] Soon Clymene fell pregnant with Phaetheon. Her and Helios raised their child together, until the ill-fated day the boy asked his father for his chariot.[200] A passage fromGreek anthology mentions Helios visiting Clymene in her room.[201]
The mortal king ofElisAugeas was said to be Helios's son, butPausanias states that his actual father was the mortal kingEleios.[202]
In some rare versions, Helios is the father, rather than the brother, of his sisters Selene and Eos. A scholiast on Euripides explained that Selene was said to be his daughter since she partakes of the solar light, and changes her shape based on the position of the sun.[203]
Helios the Sun, by Hendrik Goltzius (Holland, Mülbracht [now Bracht-am-Niederrhein], 1558-1617
Scholarly focus on the ancient Greek cults of Helios has generally been rather slim, partially due to how scarce both literary and archaeological sources are.[145] L.R. Farnell assumed "that sun-worship had once been prevalent and powerful among thepeople of the pre-Hellenic culture, but that very few of the communities of the later historic period retained it as a potent factor of the state religion".[257] The largely Attic literary sources used by scholars present ancient Greek religion with an Athenian bias, and, according to J. Burnet, "no Athenian could be expected to worship Helios or Selene, but he might think them to be gods, since Helios was the great god of Rhodes and Selene was worshiped at Elis and elsewhere".[258]Aristophanes'sPeace (406–413) contrasts the worship of Helios and Selene with that of the more essentially GreekTwelve Olympians.[259]
Alexander the Great as Helios, Roman, cast bronze, 1st century,Walters Art Museum.
The tension between the mainstream traditional religious veneration of Helios, which had become enriched with ethical values, poetical symbolism,[260] and the Ionian proto-scientific examination of the sun, clashed in the trial ofAnaxagoras c. 450 BC, in which Anaxagoras asserted that the Sun was in fact a gigantic red-hot ball of metal.[261]
Helios was not worshipped in Athens until theHellenistic period, in post-classical times.[262] His worship might be described as a product of the Hellenistic era, influenced perhaps by the general spread of cosmic and astral beliefs during the reign ofAlexander III.[263] A scholiast on Sophocles wrote that the Athenians did not offerwine as an offering to the Helios among other gods, making insteadnephalia, orwineless, sober sacrifices;[264][265] Athenaeus also reported that those who sacrificed to him did not offer wine, but brought honey instead, to the altars reasoning that the god who held the cosmos in order should not succumb to drunkenness.[266]
Lysimachides in the first century BC or first century AD reported of a festivalSkira:
that the skiron is a large sunshade under which the priestess of Athena, the priest of Poseidon, and the priest of Helios walk as it is carried from theacropolis to a place called Skiron.[267]
During theThargelia, a festival in honour of Apollo, the Athenians had cereal offerings for Helios and theHorae.[268] They were honoured with a procession, due to their clear connections and relevance to agriculture.[269][270][271][272] Helios and the Horae were also apparently worshipped during another Athenian festival held in honor of Apollo, thePyanopsia, with a feast;[273][270] an attested procession, independent from the one recorded at the Thargelia, might have been in their honour.[274]
Side B of LSCG 21.B19 from thePiraeus Asclepium prescribe cake offerings to several gods, among them Helios andMnemosyne,[275] two gods linked to incubation through dreams,[276] who are offered a type ofhoney cake calledarester and a honeycomb.[277][278] The cake was put on fire during the offering.[279] A type of cake calledorthostates[280][281] made of wheaten andbarley flour was offered to him and the Hours.[282][283] Phthois, another flat cake[284] made withcheese, honey andwheat was also offered to him among many other gods.[283]
In many places people kept herds of red and white cattle in his honour, and white animals of several kinds, but especially white horses, were considered to be sacred to him.[41] Ovid writes that horses were sacrificed to him because no slow animal should be offered to the swift god.[285]
In Plato'sRepublic Helios, the Sun, is the symbolic offspring of the idea of the Good.[286]
The ancient Greeks calledSunday "day of the Sun" (ἡμέρα Ἡλίου) after him.[287] According toPhilochorus, Athenian historian and Atthidographer of the 3rd century BC, the first day of each month was sacred to Helios.[288]
It was during the Roman period that Helios actually rose into an actual significant religious figure and was elevated in public cult.[289][263]
The island ofRhodes was an importantcult center for Helios, one of the only places where he was worshipped as a major deity in ancient Greece.[290][291] One of Pindar's most notable greatest odes is an abiding memorial of the devotion of the island of Rhodes to the cult and personality of Helios, and all evidence points that he was for the Rhodians what Olympian Zeus was forElis or Athena for the Athenians; their local myths, especially those concerning theHeliadae, suggest that Helios in Rhodes was revered as the founder of their race and their civilization.[292]
Silver drachma coin from Rhodes island with the head of Helios looking to the right and bearing a diadem of rays, ca. 170-150 BC,University of Tübingen,Berlin.
The worship of Helios at Rhodes included a ritual in which aquadriga, or chariot drawn by four horses, was driven over a precipice into the sea, in reenactment to the myth of Phaethon. Annual gymnastic tournaments were held in Helios's honor;[41] according toFestus (s. v.October Equus) during the Halia each year the Rhodians would also throw quadrigas dedicated to him into the sea.[293][294][295] Horse sacrifice was offered to him in many places, but only in Rhodes in teams of four; a team of four horses was also sacrificed to Poseidon inIllyricum, and the sea god was also worshipped in Lindos under the epithet Hippios, denoting perhaps a blending of the cults.[296]
It was believed that if one sacrificed to the rising Sun with their day's work ahead of them, it would be proper to offer a fresh, bright white horse.[297]
A colossal statue of the god, known as the Colossus of Rhodes and named as one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World, was erected in his honour and adorned the port of the city of Rhodes.[300]
The best of these are, first, the Colossus of Helius, of which the author of the iambic verse says, "seven times ten cubits in height, the work ofChares the Lindian"; but it now lies on the ground, having been thrown down by an earthquake and broken at the knees. In accordance with a certain oracle, the people did not raise it again.[301]
According to most contemporary descriptions, the Colossus stood approximately 70cubits, or 33 metres (108 feet) high – approximately the height of the modernStatue of Liberty from feet to crown – making it the tallest statue in theancient world.[302] It collapsed after an earthquake that hit Rhodes in226 BC, and the Rhodians did not build it again, in accordance with an oracle.
In Rhodes, Helios seems to have absorbed the worship and cult of the island's local hero and mythical founderTlepolemus.[303] In ancient Greek city foundation, the use of thearchegetes in its double sense of both founder and progenitor of a political order, or a polis, can be seen with Rhodes; real prominence was transferred from the local hero Tlepolemus, onto the god, Helios, with an appropriate myth explaining his relative insignificance; thus games originally celebrated for Tlepolemus were now given to Helios, who was seen as both ancestor and founder of the polis.[304] A sanctuary of Helios and the nymphs stood in Loryma nearLindos.[305]
The priesthood of Helios was, at some point, appointed by lot, though in the great city a man and his two sons held the office of priesthood for the sun god in succession.[306]
The scattering of cults inSicyon,Argos,Hermione,Epidaurus andLaconia seem to suggest that Helios was considerably important in Dorian religion, compared to other parts of ancient Greece. It may have been the Dorians who brought his worship to Rhodes.[307]
Quadriga of the Sun, sixth century BC, Temple C,Selinunte.
Helios was an important god inCorinth and the greaterCorinthia region.[308]Pausanias in hisDescription of Greece describes how Helios and Poseidon vied over the city, with Poseidon getting theisthmus of Corinth and Helios being awarded with theAcrocorinth.[140] Helios's prominence in Corinth might go as back asMycenaean times, and predate Poseidon's arrival,[309] or it might be due to Oriental immigration.[310] AtSicyon, Helios had an altar behind Hera's sanctuary.[311] It would seem that for the Corinthians, Helios was notable enough to even have control over thunder, which is otherwise the domain of the sky god Zeus.[145]
Helios had a cult inLaconia as well. Taletos, a peak of Mt.Taygetus, was sacred to Helios.[312][313] AtThalamae, Helios together with his daughter Pasiphaë were revered in an oracle, where the goddess revealed to the people consulting her what they needed to know in their dreams.[314][309] While the predominance of Helios inSparta is currently unclear, it seemsHelen was the local solar deity.[315] Helios (and Selene's) worship inGytheum, near Sparta, is attested by an inscription (C.I.G. 1392).[316]
InArgolis, an altar was dedicated to Helios nearMycenae,[317] and another inTroezen, where he was worshipped as the God of Freedom, seeing how the Troezenians had escaped slavery at the hands ofXerxes I.[318] Over atHermione stood a temple of his.[309][319][320] He appears to have also been venerated inEpidaurus.[321]
Traces of Helios's worship can also be found inCrete. In the earliest period Rhodes stood in close relations with Crete, and it is relatively safe to suggest that the name "Taletos" is associated with theEteocretan word for the sun "Talos", surviving in Zeus's epithet Tallaios,[309] a solar aspect of the thunder god in Crete.[323][324] Helios was also invoked in an oath of alliance betweenKnossos andDreros.[325]
TheTemple of Garni, late first century,Armenia, dedicated to the solar god Helios-Mihr, from a syncretic Helleno-Armenian cult.
In his little-attested cults inAsia Minor it seems his identification with Apollo was the strongest.[326][327][328] It is possible that the solar elements of Apollo's Anatolian cults were influenced by Helios's cult in Rhodes, as Rhodes lies right off the southwest coast of Asia Minor.[329]
Archaeological evidence has proven the existence of a shrine to Helios andHemera, the goddess of theday and daylight, at the island ofKos[309] and excavations have revealed traces of his cult atSinope,Pozzuoli,Ostia and elsewhere.[263] After a plague hit the city ofCleonae, inPhocis,Central Greece, the people there sacrificed a he-goat to Helios, and were reportedly then spared from the plague.[330]
Helios also had a cult in the region ofThessaly.[331] Plato in hisLaws mentions the state of theMagnetes making a joint offering to Helios and Apollo, indicating a close relationship between the cults of those two gods,[332] but it is clear that they were nevertheless distinct deities in Thessaly.[331]
An ancient Greek inscription naming King Tiridates the Sun (Helios Tiridates) as the founder of the Garni temple.
InApollonia he was also venerated, as evidenced fromHerodotus's account where a man named Evenius was harshly punished by his fellow citizens for allowing wolves to devour the flock of sheep sacred to the god out of negligence.[167]
Magical sphere with Helios and magical symbols from the theatre of Dionysus,Acropolis Museum,Athens.
Gods were often called upon by the Greeks when an oath was sworn; Helios is among the three deities to be invoked in theIliad to witness the truce between Greeks andTrojans.[338] He is also often appealed to inancient drama to witness the unfolding events or take action, such as inOedipus Rex andMedea.[339] The notion of Helios as witness to oaths and vows also led to a view of Helios as a witness of wrong-doings.[340][341][342] He was thus seen as a guarantor of cosmic order.[343]
Helios was invoked as a witness to several alliances such as the one betweenAthens andCetriporis,Lyppeus ofPaeonia andGrabus, and the oaths of theLeague of Corinth.[344] In a treaty between the cities ofSmyrna andMagnesia, the Magnesians swore their oath by Helios among others.[345] The combination of Zeus, Gaia and Helios in oath-swearing is also found among the non-Greek 'Royal Gods' in an agreement between Maussollus and Phaselis (360s BC) and in theHellenistic period with the degree ofChremonides's announcing the alliance of Athens andSparta.[344]
He also had a role in necromancy magic. TheGreek Magical Papyri contain several recipes for such, for example one which involves invoking the Sun over the skull-cup of a man who suffered a violent death; after the described ritual, Helios will then send the man's ghost to the practitioner to tell them everything they wish to know.[346] Helios is also associated with Hecate in cursing magic.[347] In some parts ofAsia Minor Helios was adjured not to permit any violation of the grave in tomb inscriptions and to warn potential violators not to desecrate the tomb, like one example from Elaeussa-Sebaste inCilicia:
We adjure you by the heavenly god [Zeus] and Helios and Selene and the gods of the underworld, who receive us, that no one [. . .] will throw another corpse upon our bones.[348]
Helios was also often invoked in funeral imprecations.[349] Helios might have been chosen for this sort of magic because as an all-seeing god he could see everything on earth, even hidden crimes, and thus he was a very popular god to invoke in prayers for vengeance.[349] Additionally, in ancient magic evil-averting aid and apotropaic defense were credited to Helios.[350] Some magic rituals were associated with the engraving of images and stones, as with one such spell which asks Helios to consecrate the stone and fill with luck, honour, success and strength, thus giving the user incredible power.[351]
Helios was also associated with love magic, much like Aphrodite, as there seems to have been another but rather poorly documented tradition of people asking him for help in such love matters,[352] including homosexual love[353] and magical recipes invoking him for affection spells.[354]
It has been suggested that in Ancient Greece people would reveal their dreams to Helios and the sky or the air in order to avert any evil foretold or presaged in them.[355][356]
According toArtemidorus'sOneirocritica, the rich dreaming of transforming into a god was an auspicious sign, as long as the transformation had no deficiencies, citing the example of a man who dreamt he was Helios but wore a sun crown of just eleven rays.[34] He wrote that the sun god was also an auspicious sign for the poor.[357] In dreams, Helios could either appear in 'sensible' form (the orb of the sun) or his 'intelligible' form (the humanoid god).[358]
Coin of Roman EmperorConstantine I depictingSol Invictus/Apollo with the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, c. 315 AD.
ByLate Antiquity, Helios had accumulated a number of religious, mythological, and literary elements from other deities, particularly Apollo and the Roman sun godSol. In 274 AD, on December 25, the Roman EmperorAurelian instituted an official state cult to Sol Invictus (orHelios Megistos, "Great Helios"). This new cult drew together imagery not only associated with Helios and Sol, but also a number ofsyncretic elements from other deities formerly recognized as distinct.[359] Helios in these works is frequently equated not only with deities such asMithras andHarpocrates, but even with the monotheistic Judaeo-Christian god.[360]
Horse-drawn quadriga of Sol on theParabiago plate (ca. 2nd–5th centuries AD)
The last pagan emperor of Rome,Julian, made Helios the primary deity of his revived pagan religion, which combined elements ofMithraism withNeoplatonism. For Julian, Helios was atriunity:The One; Helios-Mithras; and the Sun. Because the primary location of Helios in this scheme was the "middle" realm, Julian considered him to be a mediator and unifier not just of the three realms of being, but of all things.[48] Julian's theological conception of Helios has been described as "practically monotheistic", in contrast to earlier Neoplatonists like Iamblichus.[48]
A mosaic found in theVatican Necropolis (mausoleum M) depicts a figure very similar in style to Sol / Helios, crowned with solar rays and driving a solar chariot. Some scholars have interpreted this as a depiction ofChrist, noting thatClement of Alexandria wrote of Christ driving his chariot across the sky.[361] Some scholars doubt the Christian associations,[362] or suggest that the figure is merely a non-religious representation of the sun.[363]
Solar Apollo with the radianthalo of Helios in a Roman floor mosaic,El Djem, Tunisia, late 2nd century
Helios figured prominently in theGreek Magical Papyri. In these mostly fragmentary texts, Helios is credited with a broad domain, being regarded as the creator of life, the lord of the heavens and the cosmos, and the god of the sea. He is said to take the form of 12 animals representing each hour of the day, a motif also connected with the 12 signs of thezodiac.[13]
The Papyri often syncretize Helios with a variety of related deities. He is described as "seated on a lotus, decorated with rays", in the manner ofHarpocrates, who was often depicted seated on alotus flower, representing the rising sun.[364][13]
Helios in front ofMithras, fresco from a Mithraeum, Hama museum,Syria.
Helios is also assimilated withMithras in some of the Papyri, as he was by Emperor Julian. TheMithras Liturgy combines them as Helios-Mithras, who is said to have revealed the secrets of immortality to the magician who wrote the text. Some of the texts describe Helios-Mithras navigating the Sun's path not in a chariot but in a boat, an apparent identification with theEgyptian sun godRa. Helios is also described as "restraining the serpent", likely a reference toApophis, the serpent god who, in Egyptian myth, is said to attack Ra's ship during his nightly journey through the underworld.[13]
In many of the Papyri, Helios is also strongly identified with Iao, a name derived from that of the Hebrew godYahweh, and shares several of his titles including Sabaoth and Adonai.[13] He is also assimilated as theAgathos Daemon, who is also identified elsewhere in the texts as "the greatest god, lord Horus Harpokrates".[13]
The Neoplatonist philosophersProclus andIamblichus attempted to interpret many of the syntheses found in the Greek Magical Papyri and other writings that regarded Helios as all-encompassing, with the attributes of many other divine entities. Proclus described Helios as a cosmic god consisting of many forms and traits. These are "coiled up" within his being, and are variously distributed to all that "participate in his nature", includingangels,daemons, souls, animals, herbs, and stones. All of these things were important to the Neoplatonic practice oftheurgy, magical rituals intended to invoke the gods in order to ultimately achieve union with them. Iamblichus noted that theurgy often involved the use of "stones, plants, animals, aromatic substances, and other such things holy and perfect and godlike."[365] For theurgists, the elemental power of these items sacred to particular gods utilizes a kind ofsympathetic magic.[13]
The Greek sun god had various bynames or epithets, which over time in some cases came to be considered separate deities associated with the Sun. Among these are:
Acamas (/ɑːˈkɑːmɑːs/;ah-KAH-mahss;Άκάμας, "Akàmas"), meaning "tireless, unwearying", as he repeats his never-ending routine day after day without cease.
Apollo (/əˈpɒləʊ/;ə-POL-oh;Ἀπόλλων, "Apóllōn") here understood to mean "destroyer", the sun as a more destructive force.[101]
Elector (/əˈlɛktər/;ə-LEK-tər;Ἠλέκτωρ, "Ēléktōr") of uncertain derivation (compareElectra), often translated as "beaming" or "radiant", especially in the combinationĒlektōr Hyperiōn.[368]
Isodaetes (/ˌaɪsəˈdeɪtiːz/;EYE-sə-DAY-teez;Ἰσοδαίτης, "Isodaítēs"), literally "he that distributes equal portions", cult epithet also shared with Dionysus.[372]
Panoptes (/pæˈnɒptiːs/;pan-OP-tees;Πανόπτης, "Panóptēs") "all-seeing" andPantepoptes (/pæntɛˈpɒptiːs/;pan-tep-OP-tees;Παντεπόπτης, "Pantepóptēs") "all-supervising", as the one who witnessed everything that happened on earth.
Patrius (/ˈpætriəs/;PAT-ree-əs;Πάτριος, "Pátrios") "of the fathers, ancestral", related to his role as primogenitor of royal lines in several places.[348]
Phasimbrotus (/ˌfæsɪmˈbrɒtəs/;FASS-im-BROT-əs;Φασίμβροτος, "Phasímbrotos") "he who sheds light to the mortals", the sun.
Philonamatus (/ˌfɪloʊˈnæmətəs/;FIL-oh-NAM-ə-təs;Φιλονάματος, "Philonámatos") "water-loving", a reference to him rising from and setting in the ocean.[375]
Phoebus (/ˈfiːbəs/FEE-bəs;Φοῖβος,Phoîbos), literally "bright", several Roman authors applied Apollo's byname to their sun god Sol.
Titan (/ˈtaɪtən/;TY-tən;Τιτάν, "Titán"), possibly connected toτιτώ meaning "day" and thus "god of the day".[378]
Whether Apollo's epithetsAegletes andAsgelatas in the island ofAnaphe, both connected to light, were borrowed from epithets of Helios either directly or indirectly is hard to say.[374]
Helios is sometimes identified withApollo: "Different names may refer to the same being," Walter Burkert argues, "or else they may be consciously equated, as in the case of Apollo and Helios."[379] Apollo was associated with the Sun as early as the fifth century BC, though widespread conflation between him and the Sun god was a later phaenomenon.[380] The earliest certain reference to Apollo being identified with Helios appears in the surviving fragments of Euripides's playPhaethon in a speech near the end.[101]
ByHellenistic times Apollo had become closely connected with the Sun incult andPhoebus (Greek Φοῖβος, "bright"), the epithet most commonly given to Apollo, was later applied byLatin poets to the Sun-god Sol.
But having gone down into Hades because of his wife and seeing what sort of things were there, he did not continue to worship Dionysus, because of whom he was famous, but he thought Helios to be the greatest of the gods, Helios whom he also addressed as Apollo. Rousing himself each night toward dawn and climbing the mountain called Pangaion, he would await the Sun's rising, so that he might see it first. Therefore, Dionysus, being angry with him, sent theBassarides, asAeschylus the tragedian says; they tore him apart and scattered the limbs.[381]
Dionysus and Asclepius are sometimes also identified with this Apollo Helios.[382][383]
A wall painting inPompeii depicting Apollo. Before 79 AD
Strabo wrote thatArtemis and Apollo were associated with Selene and Helios respectively due to the changes those two celestial bodies caused in the temperature of the air, as the twins were gods of pestilential diseases and sudden deaths.[384]Pausanias also linked Apollo's association with Helios as a result of his profession as a healing god.[385] In theOrphic Hymns, Helios is addressed asPaean ("healer") and holding a golden lyre,[386][32] both common descriptions for Apollo; similarly Apollo in his own hymn is described as Titan and shedding light to the mortals, both common epithets of Helios.[387]
According to Athenaeus,Telesilla wrote that the song sung in honour of Apollo is called the "Sun-loving song" (φιληλιάς,philhēliás),[388] that is, a song meant to make the Sun come forth from the clouds, sung by children in bad weather; butJulius Pollux describing aphilhelias in greater detail makes no mention of Apollo, only Helios.[389]Scythinus of Teos wrote that Apollo uses the bright light of the Sun (λαμπρὸν πλῆκτρον ἡλίου φάος) as his harp-quill[390] and in a fragment ofTimotheus's lyric, Helios is invoked as an archer with the invocationἸὲ Παιάν (a common way of addressing the two medicine gods), though it most likely was part of esoteric doctrine, rather than a popular and widespread belief.[389]
Classical Latin poets also used Phoebus as a byname for the Sun-god, whence come common references in later European poetry to Phoebus and his chariot as a metaphor for the Sun.[391] Ancient Roman authors who used "Phoebus" for Sol as well as Apollo include Ovid,[392]Virgil,[393]Statius,[394] andSeneca.[395] Representations of Apollo with solar rays around his head in art also belong to the time of theRoman Empire, particularly under EmperorElagabalus in 218-222 AD.[396]
Helios in the Sun chariot accompanied by Phosphorus and Hermes, fresco at Nymphenburg Palace,Munich.
The Etruscan god of the Sun wasUsil. His name appears on the bronzeliver of Piacenza, next toTiur, the Moon.[397] He appears, rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscanbronze mirror in late Archaic style.[398] On Etruscan mirrors in Classical style, he appears with ahalo. In ancient artwork,Usil is shown in close association withThesan, the goddess of the dawn, something almost never seen with Helios and Eos,[399] however in the area betweenCetona andChiusi a stoneobelisk is found, whose relief decorations seem to have been interpreted as referring to a solar sanctuary: what appears to be a Sun boat, the heads of Helios and Thesan, and acock, likewise referring to the Sunrise.[400]
Helios is also sometimes conflated in classical literature with the highest Olympian god, Zeus. An attested cult epithet of Zeus isAleios Zeus, or "Zeus the Sun," from the Doric form of Helios's name.[401] The inscribed base of Mammia's dedication to Helios and Zeus Meilichios, dating from the fourth or third century BC, is a fairly and unusually early evidence of the conjoint worship of Helios and Zeus.[402] According toPlutarch, Helios is Zeus in his material form that one can interact with, and that's why Zeus owns the year,[403] while thechorus in Euripides'sMedea also link him to Zeus when they refer to Helios as "light born from Zeus".[404] In hisOrphic Hymn, Helios is addressed as "immortal Zeus".[386] InCrete, the cult of ZeusTallaios had incorporated several solar elements into his worship; "Talos" was the local equivalent of Helios.[323] Helios is referred either directly as Zeus's eye,[405] or clearly implied to be. For instance, Hesiod effectively describes Zeus's eye as the Sun.[406] This perception is possibly derived from earlierProto-Indo-European religion, in which the Sun is believed to have been envisioned as the eye of*Dyḗus Pḥatḗr (seeHvare-khshaeta). AnOrphic saying, supposedly given by an oracle of Apollo, goes:
"Zeus, Hades, Helios-Dionysus, three gods in one godhead!"
The Hellenistic period gave birth to Serapis, a Greco-Egyptian deity conceived by the Greeks as a chthonic aspect of Zeus, whose solar nature is indicated by the Sun crown and rays the Greeks depicted him with.[407] Frequent joint dedications to "Zeus-Serapis-Helios" have been found all over the Mediterranean.[407][408][409][410][411] There is evidence of Zeus being worshipped as a solar god in the Aegean island ofAmorgos which, if correct, could mean that Sun elements in Zeus's worship could be as early as the fifth century BC.[412]
Helios seems to have been connected to some degree with Hades, the god of the Underworld. A dedicatory inscription fromSmyrna describes a 1st–2nd century sanctuary to "God Himself" as the most exalted of a group of six deities, including clothed statues ofPlouton Helios andKoure Selene, or in other words "Pluto the Sun" and "Kore the Moon".[413] Roman poetApuleius describes a rite in which the Sun appears at midnight to the initiate at the gates ofProserpina; the suggestion here is that this midnight Sun could bePlouton Helios.[414] Pluto-Helios seems to reflect the Egyptian idea of the nocturnal Sun that penetrated the realm of the dead.[415]
An old oracle fromClaros said that the names of Zeus, Hades, Helios, Dionysus andJao all represented the Sun at different seasons.[416]Macrobius wrote that Iao/Jao is "Hades in winter, Zeus in spring, Helios in summer, and Iao in autumn."[417]
Diodorus Siculus reported that the Chaldeans called Cronus (Saturnus) by the name Helios, or the Sun, and he explained that this was becauseSaturn was the "most conspicuous" of the planets.[418]
Helios is frequently conflated with Mithras in iconography, as well as being worshipped alongside him as Helios-Mithras.[48] The earliest artistic representations of the "chariot god" come from theParthian period (3rd century) inPersia where there is evidence of rituals being performed for the sun god byMagi, indicating an assimilation of the worship of Helios andMithras.[13]
Helios (far left, head missing) marble from the east pediment of theParthenon,British Museum
The earliest depictions of Helios in a humanoid form date from the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC inAttic black-figure vases, and typically show him frontally as a bearded man on his chariot with a sun disk. A red-figure on a polychrome bobbin by a follower of the Brygos painter already signifies a shift in the god's depiction, painting him as a youthful, beardless figure. In later art, he is consistently drawn as beardless and young. In it, he is typically depicted with a radiant crown,[419] with the right hand often raised, a gesture of power (which came to be a definitional feature of solar iconography), the left hand usually holding a whip or a globe.[420]
In Rhodian coins, he was shown as a beardless god, with thick and flowing hair, surrounded by beams.[421] He was also presented as a young man clad in tunic, with curling hair and wearing buskins.[422] Just like Selene, who is sometimes depicted with a lunar disk rather than a crescent, Helios too has his own solar one instead of a sun crown in some depictions.[423] It is likely that Helios's later image as a warrior-charioteer might be traced back to the Mycenaean period;[424] the symbol of the disc of the sun is displayed in scenes of rituals from both Mycenae andTiryns, and large amounts of chariots used by the Mycenaeans are recorded in Linear B tablets.[425]
In archaic art, Helios rising in his chariot was a type of motive.[426] Helios in ancient pottery is usually depicted rising from the sea in his four-horse chariot, either as a single figure or connecting to some myth, indicating that it takes place at dawn. AnAttic black-figure vase shows Heracles sitting on the shores of the Ocean river, while next to him a pair of arrows protrude from Helios, crowned with a solar disk and driving his chariot.[427]
InElis, he was depicted with rays coming out of his head in an image made of wood with gilded clothing and marble head, hands and feet.[436] Outside the market of the city ofCorinth stood a gateway on which stood two gilded chariots; one carrying Helios's son Phaethon, the other Helios himself.[437]
Helios appears infrequently in gold jewelry before Roman times; extant examples include a gold medallion with its bust from the Gulf of Elaia inAnatolia, where he's depicted frontally with a head of unruly hair, and a golden medallion of thePelinna necklace.
His iconography, used by thePtolemies after representations ofAlexander the Great as Alexander-Helios, came to symbolize power and epiphany, and was borrowed by several Egyptian deities in the Roman period.[438] Other rulers who had their portraits done with solar features includePtolemy III Euergetes, one of thePtolemaic kings ofEgypt, of whom a bust with holes in the fillet for the sunrays and gold coins depicting him with a radiant halo on his head like Helios and holding theaegis exist.[439][440]
Helios surrounded by thezodiac in a mosaic pavement of a 6th-century synagogue atBeth Alpha,Israel.
Helios was also frequently depicted in mosaics, usually surrounded by the twelvezodiac signs and accompanied by Selene. From the third and fourth centuries CE onwards, the sun god was seen as an official imperial Roman god and thus appeared in various forms in monumental artworks. The cult of Helios/Sol had a notable function inEretz Israel; Helios wasConstantine the Great's patron, and so that ruler came to be identified with Helios.[441] In his new capital city,Constantinople, Constantine recycled a statue of Helios to represent himself in his portrait, asNero had done with Sol, which was not an uncommon practice among pagans.[442] A considerable portion if not the majority of Jewish Helios material dates from the 3rd through the 6th centuries CE, including numerous mosaics of the god in Jewish synagogues and invocation in papyri.[443]
The sun god was depicted in mosaics in three places of the Land of Israel; at the synagogues ofHammat Tiberias,Beth Alpha andNaaran. In the mosaic of the Hammat Tiberias, Helios is wrapped in a partially gilded tunic fastened with a fibula and sporting a seven-rayed halo[441] with his right hand uplifted, while his left holds a globe and a whip; his chariot is drawn as a frontal box with two large wheels pulled by four horses.[444] At the Beth Alpha synagogue, Helios is at the centre of the circle of the zodiac mosaic, together with theTorah shrine betweenmenorahs, other ritual objects, and a pair oflions, while theSeasons are in spandrels. The frontal head of Helios emerges from the chariot box, with two wheels in side view beneath, and the four heads of the horses, likewise frontal, surmounting an array of legs.[445][441] In the synagogue of Naaran, the god is dressed in a white tunic embellished with gemstones on the upper body; over the tunic is apaludamentum pinned with a fibula or bulla and decorated with a star motif, as he holds in his hand a scarf, the distinctive symbol of a ruler from the fourth century onward, and much like all other mosaics he's seated in his four-horse chariot. Temporary writings record "the sun has three letters of [God's] name written at its heart and the angels lead it" and "[t]he sun is riding on a chariot and rises decorated like a bridegroom".[441] Both at Naaran and Beth Alpha the image of the sun is presented in a bust in frontal position, and a crown with nimbus and rays on his head.[444] Helios at both Hammath Tiberias and Beth Alpha is depicted with seven rays emanating from his head, it has been argued that those two are significantly different; the Helios of Hammath Tiberias possesses all the attributes of Sol Invictus and thus the Roman emperors, those being the rayed crown, the raised right hand and the globe, all common Helios-Sol iconography of the late third and early fourth centuries AD.[420]
Helios and Selene were also personified in the mosaic of the Monastery of Lady Mary atBeit She'an.[444] Here he is not shown as Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, but rather as a celestial body, his red hair symbolizing the sun.[441]
The poplar tree was considered sacred to Helios, due to the sun-like brilliance its shining leaves have.[446] A sacred poplar in an epigram written byAntipater of Thessalonica warns the reader not to harm her because Helios cares for her.[447]
Aelian wrote that thewolf is a beloved animal to Helios;[448] the wolf is also Apollo's sacred animal, and the god was often known asApollo Lyceus, "wolf Apollo".[449]
Helios/Sol had little independent identity and presence during theRenaissance, where the main solar gods were Apollo,Bacchus andHercules.[450][451] In post-antiquity art, Apollo assimilates features and attributes of both classical Apollo and Helios, so that Apollo, along with his own iconography, is many times depicted as driving the four-horse chariot, representing both of them.[452] In medieval tradition, each of the four horses had its own distinctive colour; in the Renaissance, however, all four are shown as white.[452][453] InVersailles, a gilded statue depicts Apollo as the god of the sun, driving his quadriga as he sinks in the ocean;[454] Apollo in this regard represents the king ofFrance,le roi-soleil, "the Sun King".[455]
Additionally to the chariot, Apollo is often drawn with a solar halo around his head and depicted in scenes of Helios's mythology.[456][455] Accordingly, in depictions of Phaethon meeting his father and asking him the privilege of driving the sun chariot, artists gave to Phaethon's father the appearance and attributes of Apollo.[457][458]
Helios in one of the many stamps issued in 1947–53, celebrating the unification of theDodecanese withGreece
A love affair between the Sun god and theNereid Amphitrite is introduced by French playwright Monléon'sL'Amphytrite (1630); in the denouement, the Sun, scorned by the nymph, sets the land and sea ablaze, before the king of godsJupiter intervenes and restores peace.[459]
In Jean-Gilbert Durval'sLe Travaux d'Ulysse (1631), after his men dine on the sacred sheep, the Sun appears in 'a chariot of light', accompanied by Jupiter; like in the myth, Jupiter kills Odysseus's crewmen with his lightning bolts when they put to sea again.[459]
French composerJean-Baptiste Lully wrote in 1683 atragédie en musique inspired by Ovid's handling of the tale of Helios's son,Phaëton, in which Phaëton obtains from his father the sun chariot in order to prove his divine origins to his rivalEpaphus, but loses control and is instead struck and killed by Jupiter.[460] The luxury of the Sun and his palace was no doubt meant to connect to the Sun King,Louis XIV, who used the sun for his emblem.[461] This Apollo-Sun was frequently used to represent Louis XIV's reign, such as inPierre Corneille'sAndromède (1650).[462]
Gerhart Hauptmann'sHelios und Phaethon omits entirely the cosmic disaster Phaethon caused in order to focus on the relationship between the divine father and his mortal son, as Phaethon tries to convince his father he is well-suited for his five steeds, while Helios tries to dissuade his ambitious child, but eventually consents and gives him his reins and steeds to drive for a single day.[463]
InJames Joyce's bookUlysses, episode 14 is titledOxen of the Sun, after the story of Odysseus's men and the cattle of Helios in book twelve of theOdyssey.[464]
InA True Story, the Sun is an inhabited place, ruled by a king named Phaethon, referencing Helios's mythological son.[465] The inhabitants of the Sun are at war with those of the Moon, ruled by KingEndymion (Selene's lover), overcolonization of theMorning Star (Aphrodite's planet).[466][467]
Helios is the Greek proper name for theSun for bothAncient andModern Greek,[468] and additionallyHelios, one of the craters ofHyperion, amoon ofSaturn which bears Helios's father's name, is named after this Greek god. Several words relating to the Sun derive from "helios", including the rare adjective heliac (meaning "solar"),[469]heliosphere,perihelion and aphelion among others.
^Kirk, Raven & Schofield 1983, pp. 12–13: [F]or him does his lovely bed bear across the wave, [...] from the dwelling of the Hesperides to the land of the Aithiopes where his swift chariot and his horses stand till early-born Dawn shall come; there does the son of Hyperion mount his car."
^Aeschylus in his lost playHeliades writes: "Where, in the west, is the bowl wrought by Hephaestus, the bowl ofthy sire, speeding wherein he crosseth the mighty, swelling stream that girdleth earth, fleeing the gloom of holy night of sable steeds."
^Glover, Eric. "The eclipse of Xerxes in Herodotus 7.37: Lux a non obscurando."The Classical Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 2, 2014, pp.471–492. New Series. Accessed 12 Sept. 2021.
^Slim, Hédi. "La chute de Phaeton sur une mosaïque de Barrarus-Rougga en Tunisie". In:Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 147e année, N. 3, 2003. p. 1121. DOI:https://doi.org/10.3406/crai.2003.22628; www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_2003_num_147_3_22628
^Dain, Philippe.Mythographe du Vatican III. Traduction et commentaire. Besançon: Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquité, 2005. p. 156 (footnote nr. 33) (Collection "ISTA", 854). DOI:https://doi.org/10.3406/ista.2005.2854; www.persee.fr/doc/ista_0000-0000_2005_edc_854_1
^Quintus Smyrnaeus,Posthomerica5.300, "The Daughters of the Sun, the Lord of Omens, shed (tears) for Phaethon slain, when by Eridanos' flood they mourned for him. These, for undying honour to his son, the god made amber, precious in men's eyes."
^Eustathius,Ad Odysseam 10.305; translation by Zucker and Le Feuvre p.324: "Alexander ofPaphos reports the following tale: Picoloos, one of the Giants, by fleeing from the war led against Zeus, reached Circe's island and tried to chase her away. Her father Helios killed him, protecting his daughter with his shield; from the blood which flowed on the earth a plant was born, and it was called μῶλυ because of theμῶλος or the battle in which the Giant aforementioned was killed."
^The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius: Book III, p.89 note 845
^abcdRea, Katherine A.,The Neglected Heavens: Gender and the Cults of Helios, Selene, and Eos in Bronze Age and Historical Greece, (2014). Classics: Student Scholarship & Creative Works.Augustana College,PDF.
^John Peter Anton and George L. Kustas,Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy II, p.236
^Ugarit-Forschungen, Volume 31,Verlag Butzon & Bercker, 2000, p. 20
^Athenaeus,Scholars at Dinner11.38; "Now the Sun, begotten of Hyperion, was descending into his golden cup, that he might traverse the Ocean and come to the depths of dark and awful night, even to his mother and wedded wife and beloved children."
^Scholia onPindar,Pythian Odes4.57, in which she is also described as "sister to Pasiphaë", perhaps implying they also share a mother as well, eitherPerse orCrete.
^Nonnus,Dionysiaca26.351, contradicting his previous statement that has Clymene as Astris' mother.
^Mesomedes,Hymn to the Sun1. Eos, much like her sister Selene, is usually said to be Helios' sister instead in various other sources, rather than his daughter.
^Scholia on Pindar'sOdesI.5.3; "The Sun came from Theia and Hyperion, and from the Sun came gold". Pindar himself described Chrysus/Gold as a son of Zeus.
^abHarrison, p.79; a scholiast says "At the Pyanepsia and the Thargelia the Athenians hold a feast to Helios and the Horae, and the boys carry about branches twined with wool,"
^Parker, p.203, note 52: "Deubner [...] and Σ. vet. Ar. Plut. 1054c treat theThargelia (andPyanopsia) as festivals of the Sun and Seasons. Once could on that basis equally well link the Sun and Seasons processions withPyanopsia, but it is neater to identify it with the attestedThargelia procession and leave thePyanopsia free for the boys' roamings with theeiresione."
^abAllaire Brumfield,Cakes in the Liknon: Votives from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth, Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1997), pp.147-172, TheAmerican School of Classical Studies at Athens.
^Oxford Classical Dictionarys.v. Helios, "But it was not until the later Roman empire that Helios/*Sol grew into a figure of central importance in actual cult."
^Higgins, Reynold (1988) "The Colossus of Rhodes"p. 130, inThe Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Peter A. Clayton and Martin Jessop Price (eds.). Psychology Press,ISBN9780415050364.
^Larson, Jennifer. "A Land Full of Gods: Nature Deities in Greek Religion". In Ogden, Daniel.A Companion to Greek Religion. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, 56–70.
^HALUSZKA, ADRIA. "SACRED SIGNIFIED: THE SEMIOTICS OF STATUES IN THE 'GREEK MAGICAL PAPYRI.'" Arethusa, vol. 41, no. 3, TheJohns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp.479–94
^Wilhelm Fauth,Helios Megistos: zur synkretistischen Theologie der Spätantike (Leiden:Brill) 1995.
^Pachoumi, Eleni, "The Religious and Philosophical Assimilations of Helios in the Greek Magical Papyri", inGreek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, vol. 55, pp. 391–413.PDF.
^Webb, Matilda (2001).The Churches and Catacombs of Early Christian Rome. Sussex Academic Press. p. 18.ISBN978-1-90221058-2.
^Kemp, Martin (2000).The Oxford History of Western Art. Oxford University Press. p. 70.ISBN978-0-19860012-1.
^Guthrie, p.43, says "The Orphics never had the power to bring it about, but it was their purpose to foster it, and in their syncretistic literature they identified the two gods [i.e. Apollo and Dionysus] by giving out that both alike were Helios, the Sun. Helios = supreme god = Dionysus = Apollo (cp. Kern,Orpheus, 7). So at least the later writers say.Olympiodoros (O.F. 212) speaks of 'Helios, who according to Orpheus has much in common with Dionysos through the medium of Apollo', and according toProklos (O.F. 172) 'Orpheus makes Helios very much the same as Apollo, and worship the fellowship of these gods'. Helios and Dionysos are identified in Orphic lines (O.F. 236, 239)."
^Euripides,Medea1258;The Play of Texts and Fragments: Essays in Honour of Martin Cropp by J. Robert C. Cousland, James, 2009, p.161
^Sick, David H. (2004) "Mit(h)ra(s) and the myths of the Sun",Numen, 51 (4): 432–467,JSTOR3270454
^Bortolani, Ljuba Merlina (2016-10-13)Magical Hymns from Roman Egypt: A study of Greek and Egyptian traditions of divinity, Cambridge University Press.
^Manoledakis, Manolis. "A Proposal Relating to a Votive Inscription to Zeus Helios from Pontus." Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 173 (2010):116–18.
^Elmaghrabi, Mohamed G. "A Dedication to Zeus Helios Megas Sarapis on a 'Gazophylakion' from Alexandria." Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 200 (2016):219–28.
^"epiphanestaton" – "most conspicuous" noted inDiodorus Siculus II. 30. 3–4. See also Franz Boll (1919) Kronos-Helios,Archiv für Religionswissenschaft XIX, p. 344.
^British Museum,A Guide to the Principal Coins of the Greeks 60, no. 24, pl. 34
^C. Vermeule and D. von Bothmer, "Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain."American Journal of Archaeology vol. 63, no. 2 (1959): p.146
^Thomson, William (August 3, 1871)."Inaugural Address of Sir William Thomson".Nature.4 (92): 261–278 [268].Bibcode:1871Natur...4..261..doi:10.1038/004261a0.PMC2070380.Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. RetrievedFebruary 22, 2016.Frankland and Lockyer find the yellow prominences to give a very decided bright line not far from D, but hitherto not identified with any terrestrial flame. It seems to indicate a new substance, which they propose to call Helium
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as inHesiod,Theogony371–374, in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes (4),99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Claudian,Rape of Persephone inClaudian: Volume II. Translated by Platnauer, Maurice.Loeb Classical Library Volume 136. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1922.
Emperor Julian the Apostate,Against the Galileans: remains of the 3 books, excerpted from Cyril of Alexandria, Contra Julianum, (1923) pp. 319–433, translated by Wilmer Cave Wright, Ph.D.
Euripides,Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus. Other Fragments. Edited and translated by Christopher Collard, Martin Cropp.Loeb Classical Library 506. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Euripides,The Complete Greek Drama', edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. .1.Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter. New York. Random House. 1938.
Euripides,The Complete Greek Drama', edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 2.The Phoenissae, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938.
Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter inTheHomeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo inTheHomeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes inTheHomeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homeric Hymn 28 to Athena inTheHomeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homeric Hymn 31 to Helios inTheHomeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Isthmian odes of Pindar, edited with introduction and commentary by J. B. Bury, M.A., London, Macmillan and Co., 1892.
Lactantius Placidus,Argumenta inLateinische Mythographen: Lactantius Placidus, Argumente der Metamorphosen Ovids, erstes heft, Dr. B. Bunte,Bremen, 1852, J. Kühtmann & Comp.
Libanius,Libanius's Progymnasmata: Model Exercises in Greek Prose Composition and Rhetoric. With a translation and notes by Craig A. Gibson. Society of Biblical Literature,Atalanta. 2008.ISBN978-1-58983-360-9
Lucian,Icaromenippus inThe Downward Journey or The Tyrant. Zeus Catechized. Zeus Rants. The Dream or The Cock. Prometheus. Icaromenippus or The Sky-man. Timon or The Misanthrope. Charon or The Inspectors. Philosophies for Sale. Translated by A. M. Harmon.Loeb Classical Library 54. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.
Lucian,Lucian'sA True Story: an Intermediate Greek reader, Greek text with running vocabulary and commentary, Evan Hayes, Stephen A. Nimis, 2011.ISBN0983222800
Lucian,The Dream or the Cock inThe Downward Journey or The Tyrant. Zeus Catechized. Zeus Rants. The Dream or The Cock. Prometheus. Icaromenippus or The Sky-man. Timon or The Misanthrope. Charon or The Inspectors. Philosophies for Sale. Translated by A. M. Harmon.Loeb Classical Library 54. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.
Lycophron,Alexandra (orCassandra) inCallimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921 .Internet Archive
Mesomedes inLyra Græca: Specimens of the Greek Lyric Poets, from Callinus to Soutsos. Edited, with critical Notes, and a biographical Introduction, by James Donaldson (Edinburgh & London, 1854) p. 96f.
Ovid,Fasti: With an English translation by Sir James George Frazer, London: W. Heinemann LTD; Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1959.Internet Archive.
Palaephatus inEarly Greek Philosophy, Volume I: Introductory and Reference Materials. Edited and translated by André Laks, Glenn W. Most.Loeb Classical Library 524. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016.
Palladas, inThe Greek Anthology, Volume IV: Book 10: The Hortatory and Admonitory Epigrams. Book 11: The Convivial and Satirical Epigrams. Book 12: Strato's Musa Puerilis. Translated by W. R. Paton.Loeb Classical Library 85. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1918.
Paradoxographoe, by Anton Westermann,Harvard College Library, 1839, London.
Pausanias,Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pindar,The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Plato,Plato's statesman: A translation of The Politicus of Plato, with introductory essays and footnotes., & Skemp, J. B. (1952) New Haven: Yale University Press.
Pliny the Elder,Pliny – Natural History, 10 volumes. Translated by Rackham, H.; Jones, W. H. S.; Eichholz, D. E. Loeb Classical Library. 1938–1962.
Plutarch,Moralia. 16 vols. (vol. 13: 13.1 & 13.2, vol. 16: index), transl. by Frank Cole Babbitt (vol. 1–5) et al., series: "Loeb Classical Library" (LCL, vols. 197–499). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press et al., 1927–2004.
Porphyry,On Abstinence From Animal Food inSelect works of Porphyry: Containing his four books On abstinence from animal food; his treatise On the Homeric cave of the nymphs; and his Auxiliaries to the perception of intelligible natures. Translated by Thomas Taylor (1823). Several reprints; Prometheus Trust (1994).
Scholia Aristophanica; being such comments adscript to the text of Aristophanes as have been preserved in the Codex Ravennas, arr., emended, and translated by Rutherford, William Gunion, 1853–1907, ed. and tr; Biblioteca comunale classense (Ravenna, Italy).
Seneca,Tragedies, translated by Miller, Frank Justus.Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1917.
Statius,Thebaid. Translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928.
Tzetzes, John,Chiliades, editor Gottlieb Kiessling, F.C.G. Vogel, 1826.Google Books. (English translation: Book I by Ana Untila; Books II–IV, by Gary Berkowitz; Books V–VI by Konstantino Ramiotis; Books VII–VIII by Vasiliki Dogani; Books IX–X by Jonathan Alexander; Books XII–XIII by Nikolaos Giallousis.Internet Archive).
Xenophon'sEphesian History: or the Love-Adventures of Abrocomas and Anthia, in Five Books''. Translated from the Greek by Mr. Rooke [the Second Edition], London: Printed for J. Millan at Locke's Head in Shug-Lane; 1727, pp. 87–112.
1742 libretto: Phaeton, Tragedie représentée pour la première fois à Versailles devant le Roi, le mercredi 6 janvier 1683 et à Paris (...) Remise au théâtre le mardi 13 novembre 1742. Paris: Ballard.
Classical Manual: Or a Mythological, Historical and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil, with a Copious Index, London, printed by A. J. Valpy, M. A. For Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green. 1827.
Ekroth, Gunnel,The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period, Presses universitaires de Liège, 2013,ISBN9782821829008.
Fairbanks, Arthur,The Mythology of Greece and Rome. D. Appleton–Century Company, New York, 1907.
Faita, Antonia-Stella,The Great Altar of Pergamon: The Monument in its Historical and Cultural Context, 2000,University of Bristol.Internet Archive.
Hall, James,Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, second edition, 2018,Routledge publications,ISBN978-0-8133-4393-8.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
Impelluso, Lucia,Gods and Heroes in Art, translated by Thomas Michael Hartmann, 2002 (English translation),Getty Publications for theUnited States.
Inman, Thomas,Ancient faiths embodied in ancient names: or, An attempt to trace the religious belief, sacred rites, and holy emblems of certain nations, volume 1, second edition, 1872, Trübner and Co.
Konaris, Michael D. (2016).The Greek Gods in Modern Scholarship: Interpretation and Belief in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Germany and Britain.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-873789-6.
Keightley, Thomas,The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, second edition considerably enlarged and improved,London, Whittaker and Co., 1838.
Kerenyi, Karl (1951). "Apollo: The Wind, the Spirit, and the God: Four Studies".The Gods of the Greeks.
Kerenyi, Karl (1951). "The Sun, the Moon and their Family".The Gods of the Greeks. pp. 190–194.et passim.
Kristiansen, Kristian; Larsson, Thomas B. (2005).The Rise of Bronze Age Society: Travels, Transmissions and Transformations. Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-84363-4
Lecerf, Adrien,Iamblichus and Julian's "Third Demiurge": A Proposition in Afonasin, Eugene; Dillon, John M. Dillon; Finamore, John,Iamblichus and the Foundations of Late Platonism,Brill Publications, 2012,ISBN978-90-04-18327-8.
Le Comte, Edward,Poets' Riddles: Essays in Seventeenth-century Explication, Port Washington, N.Y. : Kennikat Press, 1975.
MacDonald Kirkwood, Gordon,A Short Guide to Classical Mythology. Cornell University. 2000. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
Madigan, Brian Christopher,Monumenta Graeca et Romana: Corinthian and Attic vases in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Boston,Brill Publications, 2008.ISBN978-90-04-16408-6.
Roberts, Helene E.,Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Volume I and II, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London, Chicago, 1998.ISBN1-57958-009-2.
Robertson, Martin (1981),A Shorter History of Greek Art, Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521280846.
Robertson, Martin (1992),The Art of Vase-Painting in Classical Athens, Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521338813.
Seyffert, Oskar,A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Mythology, Religion, Literature and Art, from the German of Dr. Oskar Seyffert, S. Sonnenschein, 1901.Internet Archive.
Steinberg, Aliza,Weaving in Stones: Garments and Their Accessories in the Mosaic Art of Eretz Israel in Late Antiquity,Archaeopress Publishing, 2020,ISBN978-1-78969-321-8.
Stoneman, Richard; Erickson, Kyle; Netton, Ian Richard,The Alexander Romance in Persia and the East, 2012,ISBN9789491431043.
Stoneman, Richard,Greek Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend, Diamond Books, 1995.
Stoll, Heinrich Wilhelm,Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks, With a Short Account of The Religious System of the Romans, tr. by R.B. Paul, and ed. by T.K. Arnold, London, Francis & John Rivington, 1852.
Stuttard, David (2016).Greek Mythology: A Traveler's Guide. London and New York: Thames and Hudson.ISBN978-0500518328.
The Classical Review, volume VII, University of Illinois Library, 1893.
Versnel, H.S.,Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual: Volume 1: Ter Unus. Isis, Dionysos, Hermes. Three Studies in Henotheism,Brill Publications, 2015,ISBN90-04-09266-8.
Walters, Henry Beauchamp,History of ancient pottery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman volume II, based on the work of Samuel Birch, 1905, London, J. Murray,New York.
Walton, Alice,The Cult of Asclepius, Ginn and Company, 1894.
%2c_Helios-Relief%2c_mitte.jpg)
_Flaxman_Ilias_1795%2c_Zeichnung_1793%2c_188_x_255_mm.jpg)
.jpg)
%2c_Liebieghaus_Skulpturensammlung%2c_Frankfurt_am_Main_(52662740200).jpg)
_MET_DP225321.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
_-_Napoli_MAN_9449_-_02.jpg)
.png)
_-_08.JPG)
_at_the_Naturhistorisches_Museum%2c_Wien-9958.jpg)
.jpg)
