Helios
(Ἥλιος or Ἠέλιος), that is, the sun, or the god of the sun. He is described as the son of Hyperion and Theia, and as a brother of Selene and Eos. (Hom. Od. 12.176, 322, Hymn. in Min. 9, 13; Hes. Th. 371, &c.) From his father, he is frequently called Hyperionides, or Hyperion, the latter of which is an abridged form of the patronymic, Hyperionion. (Hom. Od. 12.176, Hymn. in Cer. 74; Hes. Th. 1011; Hom. (Od. 1.24, 2.19, 398, Hymn. in Apoll. Pyth. 191.) In the Homeric hymn on Helios, he is called a son of Hyperion and Euryphaessa. Homer describes Helios as giving light both to gods and men: he rises in the east from Oceanus, though not from the river, but from some lake or bog (λίμνη) formed by Oceanus, rises up into heaven, where he reaches the highest point at noon time, and then he descends, arriving in the evening in the darkness of the west, and in Oceanus. (Il. 7.422, Od. 3.1, &c., 335, 4.400, 10.191, 11.18, 12.380.) Later poets have marvellously embellished this simple notion: they tell of a most magnificent palace of Helios in the east, containing a throne occupied by the god, and surrounded by personifications of the different divisions of time (Ov. Met. 2.1, &c.); and while Homer speaks only of the gates of Helios in the west, later writers assign to him a second palace in the west, and describe his horses as feeding upon herbs growing in the islands of the blessed. (Nonn. Dionys. 12.1, &c.; Ath. 7.296; Stat. Theb. 3.407.) The points at which Helios rises and descends into the ocean are of course different at the different seasons of the year; and the extreme points in the north and south, between which the rising and setting take place, are the τροπαὶ ἠελίοιο. (Od. 15.403; Hes. Op. et Dies, 449, 525.) The manner in which Helios during the night passes front the western into the eastern ocean is not mentioned either by Homer or Hesiod, but later poets make him sail in a golden boat round one-half of the earth, and thus arrive in the east at the point from which he has to rise again. This golden boat is the work of Hephaestus. (Ath. 11.469; Apollod. 2.5.10; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1632.) Others represent him as making his nightly voyage while slumbering in a golden bed. (Ath. 11.470.) The horses and chariot with which Helios makes his daily career are not mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey, but first occur in the Homeric hymn on Helios (9, 15; comp. in Merc. 69, in Cer. 88), and both are described minutely by later poets. (Ov. Met. 2.106, &c.; Hyg. Fab. 183; Schol. ad Eurip. Pholen. 3 ; Pind. O. 7.71.)
Helios is described even in the Homeric poems as the god who sees and hears every thing, but, notwithstanding this, he is unaware of the fact that the companions of Odysseus robbed his oxen, until he was informed of it by Lampetia. (Od. 12.375.) But, owing to his omniscience, he was able to betray to Hephaestus the faithlessness of Aphrodite, and to reveal to Demeter the carrying off of her daughter. (Od. 8.271, Hymn. in Cer. 75, &c., in Sol. 10; comp. Soph. Ajax, 847, &c.) This idea of Helios knowing every thing, which also contains the elements of his ethical and prophetic nature, seems to have been the cause of Helios being confounded and identified with Apollo, though they were originally quite distinct; and the identification was, in fact, never carried out completely, for no Greek poet ever made Apollo ride in the chariot of Helios through the heavens, and among the Romans we find this idea only after the time of Virgil. The representations of Apollo with rays around his head, to characterise him as identical with the sun, belong to the time of the Roman empire.
The island of Thrinacia (Sicily) was sacred to Helios, and he there had flocks of oxen and sheep, each consisting of 350 heads, which never increased or decreased, and were attended to by his daughters Phaetusa and Lampetia. (Hom. Od. 12.128. 261, &c.; Apollon. 4.965, &c.) Later traditions ascribe to him flocks also in the island of Erytheia (Apollod. 1.6.1; comp. 2.5.10 ; Theocrit. 25.130), and it may be remarked in general, that sacred flocks, especially of oxen, occur in most places where the worship of Helios was established. His descendants are very numerous, and the surnames and epithets given him by the poets are mostly descriptive of his character as the sun. Temples of Helios (ήλιεῖα) seem to have existed in Greece at a very early time (Hom. Od. 12.346), and in later times we find his worship established in various places, as in Elis (Paus. 6.25.5), at Apollonia (Hdt. 9.93), Hermione (Paus. 2.34.10), in the acropolis of Corinth (2.4.7; comp. 2.1.6), near Argos (2.18.3), at Troezene (2.31.8), Megalopolis (8.9.2, 31.4), and several other places, especially in the island of Rhodes, where the famous colossus of Rhodes was a representation of Helios: it was 70 cubits in height, and, being overthrown by an earthquake, the Rhodians were commanded by an oracle not to erect it again. (Pind. O. 7.54, &c.; Strab. xiv. p.652; Plin. Nat. 34.7, 17.) The sacrifices offered to Helios consisted of white rams, boars, bulls, goats, Lambs, especially white horses, and honey. (Hom. Il. 19.197; Eustath. ad Hom. pp. 36,1668; Hyg. Fab. 223; Paus. 3.20.5; Hdt. 1.216; Strab. 11.513.) Among the animals sacred to him, the cock is especially mentioned. (Paus. 5.25.5.) The Roman poets, when speaking of the god of the sun (Sol), usually adopt the notions of the Greeks, but the worship of Sol was introduced also at Rome, especially after the Romans had become acquainted with the East, though traces of the worship of the sun and moon occur at a very early period. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. 5.74; Dionys. A. R. 2.50; Sext. Ruf. Reg. Urb. iv.) Helios was represented on the pedestal of the Olympian Zeus, in the act of ascending his chariot (Paus. 5.11.3), and several statutes of him are mentioned (6.24.5, 8.9.2, 31.4); he was also represented riding in his chariot, drawn by four horses. (Plin. Nat. 34.3, 19; comp. Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. 1.35.) [L.S]
(Ἥλιος). In Greek mythology, the Sungod, son of the Titan Hyperion (whose name he bears in Homer) and the Titaness Thea; brother of Selené (the Moon) and Eos (Dawn). The poets apply the name Titan to him in particular, as the offspring of Titans. He is-represented as a strong and beautiful god, in the bloom of youth, with gleaming eyes and waving locks, and a crown of rays upon his head. In the morning he rises from a lovely bay of the Ocean in the farthest East, where the Æthiopians dwell. To give light to gods and men he climbs the vault of heaven in a chariot drawn by four snow-white horses, breathing light and fire; their names are Eoös, Aethiops, Bronté, and Steropé. In the evening he sinks with his chariot into the Ocean, and while he sleeps is carried round along the northern border of the earth to the East again in a golden boat, shaped like a bowl, the work of Hephaestus. He is called Phaëthon, from the brilliant light that he diffuses; he is the All-seer (Panoptes), because his rays penetrate everywhere. He is revealer of all that is done on earth; it is he who told Hephaestus of the intrigue of Ares and Aphrodité, and showed Demeter who had carried off her daughter. He was accordingly invoked as a witness to oaths and solemn protestations.
On the island of Trinacria (Sicily) he had seven flocks of sheep and seven herds of cattle, fifty in each. It was his pleasure, on his daily journey, to look down upon them. Their numbers were not to be increased or diminished; for if this was done, his wrath was terrible. (See Odysseus.) In the 700 sheep and oxen the ancients recognized the 700 days and nights of the lunar year. The flocks were tended by Phaëthusa (the goddess of light) and Lampetié (the goddess of shining), his daughter by Neaera. By the ocean Nymph Persé or Perseïs he was father of Aeëtes, Circé, and Pasiphaë, by Clymené the father of Phaëthon, and Augeas was also accounted his son. His children had the gleaming eyes of their father.
After the time of Euripides, or thereabouts, the all-seeing Sun-god was identified with Apollo, the god of prophecy. Helios was worshipped in many places, among which may be mentioned Corinth and Elis. The island of Rhodes was entirely consecrated to him. Here an annual festival (Ἅλια) was held during the summer in his honour, with chariot-racing and contests of music and gymnastics; and four consecrated horses were thrown into the sea as a sacrifice to him. In B.C. 278 a colossal bronze statue by Chares of Lindus was erected to him at the entrance of the harbour of Rhodes. (See Colossus.) Herds of red and white cattle were, in many places, kept in his honour. White animals, and especially white horses, were sacred to him; among the birds the cock, and among trees the white poplar. See, in English literature, the poem by Keats, Hyperion, and the first book of W. S. Landor's Gebir.
The Latin poets identified Helios with the Sabine deity Sol, who had an ancient place of worship on the Quirinal at Rome, and a public sacrifice on the 8th of August; but it was the introduction of the ritual of Mithras which first brought the worship of the sun into prominence in Rome. See Mithras.
- Apollod. 1.2.2
- Thrinacia, the island of the: Apollod. E.7.21
- husband of Rhode: Apollod. 1.4.5
- father of Aeetes, Circe, and Pasiphae by Perseis: Apollod. 1.9.1
- father of Augeas: Apollod. 1.9.17, Apollod. 2.5.4
- father of Circe by Perse: Apollod. E.7.12
- father of Pasiphae by Perseis: Apollod. 3.1.2
- father of Aloeus: Paus. 2.1.1, of Augeas: Paus. 5.1.9, of Graces: Paus. 9.35.5, of Pasiphae: Paus. 5.25.9
- ancestor of Idomeneus: Paus. 5.25.9
- daughters of: Paus. 1.4.1
- brother of Titan: Paus. 2.11.5
- Sun's rays restore sight to blind: Apollod. 1.4.3
- the cows of the, in Erythia: Apollod. 1.5.3
- the cows of the, in the island of Thrinacia: Apollod. 1.9.24
- reports the slaughter of his cows to Zeus: Apollod. E.7.21
- forbidden by Zeus to shine: Apollod. 1.6.1
- gives a dragoncar to Medea: Apollod. 1.9.27
- gives Herakles a golden goblet in which to cross the sea: Apollod. 2.5.10, Apollod. 2.5.10, Apollod. 2.5.11
- disputes with Poseidon for possession of Corinth: Paus. 2.1.6
- awarded Acro-Corinth by Briareus, but resigns it to Aphrodite: Paus. 2.4.6
- gives Asopia to Aloeus, and Ephyraea to Aeetes: Paus. 2.3.10
- going backward and setting in the east, sign of the: Apollod. E.2.10
- setting of sun represented in gable of Apollo's temple at Delphi: Paus. 10.19.4
- in Cancer: Paus. 8.38.6
- in Taurus: Paus. 9.17.4
- hegoat sacrificed to rising sun: Paus. 10.11.5
- horses sacrificed to Sun on Mount Taletum: Paus. 3.20.4
- cock sacred to: Paus. 5.25.9
- Mount Taletum sacred to: Paus. 3.20.4
- altars of: Paus. 2.4.6, Paus. 2.11.1, Paus. 2.18.3, Paus. 2.31.5, Paus. 8.9.4
- images: Paus. 2.3.2, Paus. 2.5.1, Paus. 3.26.1, Paus. 6.24.6, Paus. 8.31.7
- represented in car: Paus. 2.3.2, Paus. 5.11.8
- table of Sun in Ethiopia: Paus. 1.33.4, Paus. 6.26.2
- temple at Hermion: Paus. 2.34.10
- Sun of Freedom: Paus. 2.31.5
- surnamed Herakles: Paus. 8.31.7
- surnamed Saviour: Paus. 8.31.7
- Sunset