A vivid description of him can be found in Homeric Hymn 31, dedicated to Helios:Īs he rides in his chariot, he shines upon men and deathless gods, and piercingly he gazes with his eyes from his golden helmet. Helios was usually imagined as a handsome and youthful god. Later, by the time of the Roman Empire, Helios (or Sol, as the Romans knew him) was increasingly seen as the dominant power in the cosmic order. By the Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE), it had become common for the Greeks to identify Helios with Apollo, one of the most important Olympian gods. But since Helios, like the sun, was all-seeing, his range of powers gradually expanded. Originally, he seems to have been conceived merely as a personification of the sun. Helios’ functions subtly changed over time. The Greeks tended to view eclipses (both solar and lunar) as evil omens, signs that the gods needed to be placated. 5Īs the god of the sun and of solar activity, Helios was also connected with solar eclipses. In this capacity, Helios was often regarded as an upholder of cosmic order and justice 4 and was sometimes named as a guarantor of oaths. Palace of Moncloa, Madrid, Spain Hellenica World / Public DomainĪs he surveyed the world from his sun chariot, Helios observed everything that happened to both gods and humans, making him the most “all-seeing” of all the deities (second, perhaps, only to Zeus). Helios as Personification of Midday by Anton Raphael Megs (1765). He was responsible for the daily journey of the sun across the sky, which he carried out in a golden chariot drawn by four fiery steeds. Helios’ epithets included ἠλέκτωρ ( ēléktōr, “beaming, radiant”), ἐλευθέριος ( eleuthérios, “liberator”), πανόπτης ( panóptēs, “all-seeing”), σωτήρ ( sōtḗr, “savior”), and φοῖβος ( phoîbos, “bright”)-an epithet shared with Apollo, with whom Helios was sometimes identified. His Roman counterpart was called Sol (from the Latin word meaning “sun”). Over time, Helios became identified with other gods, most notably Apollo. Very often he was simply called “Titan” or “the Titan.” Helios was sometimes known as Hyperion (also his father’s name), which means “high one” or “he who moves above”-an appropriate name for a sun god. It is more likely that Helios’ name (and the Greek noun with which it is identical) comes from the Indo-European word for sun, * seh₂u-el. Nowadays, these efforts are regarded as folk etymologies. The Suda, on the other hand, connected the word to either ἀολλίζεσθαι ( aollízesthai), meaning “to come together” (because of the “coming together” that occurs during the daytime), or to ἀλεαίνειν ( aleaínein), meaning “to warm.” 2 The ancient Greeks suggested several fanciful etymologies for Helios’ name: Plato, for example, derived the name (and the noun) from either the verb ἁλίζειν ( halízein), meaning “to collect” (because the sun “collected” humans whenever it rose), or from the phrase ἀεὶ εἱλεῖν ( aeì heileîn), meaning “to turn constantly” (because the sun was constantly turning around the earth). Hḗlios) was also the ancient Greek word meaning “sun.” Variant spellings include the Homeric Ἠέλιος ( Ēélios), the Doric and Aeolic Ἅλιος ( Hálios) or Ἀέλιος ( Aélios), and the Cretan Ἀβέλιος ( Abélios) or Ἀϝέλιος ( Awélios). The name “Helios” (Greek Ἥλιος, translit. (Similarly, Helios’ sister Selene was increasingly identified with Apollo’s sister Artemis.) # Etymology His cult did, however, become much more important in later antiquity, when the sun god came to be identified with the more powerful Apollo, the Olympian god of divination, healing, and the arts. Though Helios was treated with awe and reverence by the ancient Greeks, he was rarely worshipped. In one myth, Helios’ rash son Phaethon tried to drive the blazing chariot himself, but he lost control of the horses, scorched the earth, and was ultimately killed. Every day, Helios drove his chariot across the sky to bring light to the world. He served as both the god of the sun and the sun personified. Helios, often known simply as “the Titan,” was the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. In one popular myth, Phaethon attempted to drive his father’s sun chariot, but he lost control of the spirited horses, scorching the earth and falling to his death. Helios had many children, though the most famous of them was a son named Phaethon.
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