Helios Xd3 V2

[Demeter Exekutor]

Heliosfigures prominently in several works of Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, in which he is often described as the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and brother of the goddesses Selene (the Moon) and Eos (the Dawn). Helios' most notable role in Greek mythology is the story of his mortal son Phaethon.[3]

In the Homeric epics, his most notable role is the one he plays in the Odyssey, where Odysseus' men despite his warnings impiously kill and eat Helios's sacred cattle that the god kept at Thrinacia, 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 for Odysseus himself, the only one who had not harmed the cattle, and was allowed to live.[4]

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 a chiton holding a whip and driving his quadriga, accompanied by various other celestial gods such as Selene, Eos, or the stars. In ancient times he was worshipped in several places of ancient Greece, though his major cult centers were the island of Rhodes, of which he was patron god, Corinth and the greater Corinthia region. The Colossus of Rhodes, a gigantic statue of the god, adorned the port of Rhodes until it was destroyed in an earthquake, thereupon it was not built again.

Helios most likely is Proto-Indo-European in origin. Walter Burkert wrote that "... Helios, the sun god, and Eos-Aurora, the goddess 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.[13] The imagery surrounding a chariot-driving solar deity is likely Indo-European in origin.[14][15][16] 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, and the equine pair.[17]

Helen of Troy's name is thought to share the same etymology as Helios,[17][18][19][20] 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 an egg and was given tree worship, features associated with the Proto-Indo-European Sun Maiden;[21] in surviving Greek tradition however Helen is never said to be Helios' daughter, instead being the daughter of Zeus.[22]

It has been suggested that the Phoenicians brought over the cult of their patron god Baal among others (such as Astarte) to Corinth, who was then continued to be worshipped under the native name/god Helios, similarly to how Astarte was worshipped as Aphrodite, and the Phoenician Melqart was adopted as the sea-god Melicertes/Palaemon, who also had a significant cult in the isthmus of Corinth.[23]

Helios' journey on a chariot during the day and travel with a boat in the ocean at night is likely a reflection of the Egyptian sun god Ra sailing across the skies in a barque and through the body of the sky goddess Nut to be reborn at dawn each morning anew; both gods were known as the (all-seeing in Helios's case) Eye of the Heaven in their respective pantheons.[24]

Helios is the son of Hyperion and Theia,[25][26][27] or Euryphaessa,[28] or Aethra,[29] or Basileia,[30] 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,[31] though in spite of him being a relatively marginal god, he was one of the most ancient.[32] From his lineage, Helios might be described as a second generation Titan.[33] He is associated with harmony and order, both in the sense of society and the literal movement of the celestial bodies; in this regard, he resembles Apollo, a god he was very often identified with.[34]

In the Homeric Hymn to Helios, Helios is said to drive the golden chariot drawn by steeds;[43] and Pindar speaks of Helios's "fire-darting steeds".[44] Still later, the horses were given fire related names: Pyrois ("The Fiery One"), Aeos ("He of the Dawn"[45]), Aethon ("Blazing"), and Phlegon ("Burning"). 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."[46]

As mentioned above, the imagery surrounding a chariot-driving solar deity is likely Indo-European in origin and is common to both early Greek and Near Eastern religions.[47][48] The earliest artistic representations of the "chariot god" come from the Parthian period (3rd century) in Persia where there is evidence of rituals being performed for the sun god by Magi, indicating an assimilation of the worship of Helios and Mithras.[14]

Helios is seen as both a personification of the Sun and the fundamental creative power behind it,[49] and as a result is often worshiped as a god of life and creation. Homer described Helios as a god "who gives joy to mortals"[50] and other ancient texts give him the epithet "gracious" (ἱλαρός), given that he is the source of life and regeneration and associated with the creation of the world. The comic playwright Aristophanes in Nephelae describes Helios[51] as "the horse-guider, who fills the plain of the earth with exceeding bright beams, a mighty deity among gods and mortals."[52] One passage recorded in the Greek 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."[14] He is said to have helped create animals out of primeval mud.[53]

Helios was envisioned as a god driving his chariot from east to west each day, pulled by four white horses.[54] The chariot and his horses are mentioned by neither Homer nor Hesiod, the earliest work in which they are attested being the Homeric Hymn to Helios.[55][56][48] Although the chariot is usually said to be the work of Hephaestus,[57][58] Hyginus states that it was Helios himself who built it.[59] His chariot is described as golden[43] or pink[60] in colour. The Horae, 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 in his daily swing across the skies.[64] Every day he rose from the Ocean, the great earth-encircling river, carried by his horses.

In Homer, he is said to go under the earth at sunset, but it is not clear whether that means he travels through Tartarus.[65] Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistae 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,[66] and writes that "Helios gained a portion of toil for all his days", as there is no rest for either him or his horses.[67] Just like his chariot and horses, the cup is attested in neither Hesiod nor Homer, first appearing in the Titanomachy, an 8th-century BC epic poem attributed to Eumelus of Corinth.[65] Tragedian Aeschylus in his lost play Prometheus Unbound (a sequel to Prometheus Bound) describes the sunset as such:

"There [is] the sacred wave, and the coralled bed of the Erythran 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."

In the extreme east and west lived people who tended to his horses in their stalls, people for whom summer and heat were perpetual and ripeful.[40] Palladas sarcastically wrote that "The Sun to men is the god of light, but if he too were insolent to them in his shining, they would not desire even light."[69]

On several instances in mythology the normal solar schedule is disrupted; he was ordered not to rise for three days during the conception of Heracles, and made the winter days longer in order to look upon Leucothoe, Athena's birth was a sight so impressive that Helios halted his steeds and stayed still in the sky for a long while,[70] as heaven and earth both trembling at the newborn goddess' sight.[71]

In the Iliad Hera who supports the Greeks, makes him set earlier than usual against his will during battle,[72] and later still during the same war, after his sister Eos's son Memnon 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.[73]

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,[74][75] and sometimes he is late to rise because he lingers with his consort.[76] If the other gods wish so, Helios can be hastened on his daily course when they wish it to be night.[77]

When Zeus desired to sleep with Alcmene, he made one night last threefold, hiding the light of the Sun, by ordering Helios not to rise for those three days.[78][79] Satirical author Lucian of Samosata dramatized this myth in one of his Dialogues of the Gods.[80][c]

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