While Helios and Selene maintained there own legends and duties, by the 1st century CE they seem to have become much less important. They were still thought to embody day and night, however. Because Apollo and his sister were seen as complementary opposites, she became associated with the moon.Īpollo and Artemis both had important roles on earth and on Mount Olympus, so neither could be tied to the sun or moon as it moved through the sky. Common thought held that Apollo was a master of the sun but Helios, who has a Titan was lower-ranking than the Olympian, did the work of driving the chariot itself.Ī similar transformation occurred between Artemis and Selene. The Greeks seem to have maintained some distinction between the two gods, viewing them as similar but individual.
![helios god of the sun helios god of the sun](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/008/517/192/large/jolanda-van-zandbergen-gate-of-gods-helios-vertical-v1.jpg)
No such link had existed in the Homeric era, but by the 4th century BC the two gods were virtually interchangeable. In the context of the scene it meant “destroyer,” but audiences and later readers made a more literal connection between the two gods.īy the Hellenistic era, therefore, Apollo was closely connected to the sun. One of Apollo’s common epithets was Phoebus, which meant “shining” or “bright.” This name linked Apollo to the sun, but an epithet of Helios took the connection even further. Zeus’s son was a god of music and poetry but was also associated with light. One reason Helios is easily ignored is that in later eras he was often conflated with the god Apollo. Despite this, however, he is often forgotten among the pantheon. Helios was more prominent in many Greek myths than some of the other remaining Titan gods. If Zeus did not act for him, Helios threatened to shine his light into the underworld instead of on the surface of the earth. Helios was able to make such a demand, leading Zeus to sink the ship and kill the entire crew, because his role as the god of the sun gave him great power. When the Ithacan king’s men disobeyed his orders and slaughtered some of the sun god’s sacred cattle, Helios demanded that Zeus take revenge on his behalf. In another story, Helios was responsible for one of the worst calamities to befall the hero Odysseus.
![helios god of the sun helios god of the sun](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/007/725/362/large/mateusz-gruszka-helios-final.jpg)
Helios also told Hephaestus about the affair between Aphrodite and Ares because he had witnessed the god of war coming in and out of the smith’s Olympian palace. When Persephone was abducted, for example, only Helios had seen Hades come up from beneath the earth and drag her away. This most often was due to the fact that he could see everything that happened on earth and Mount Olympus from his position in the sky. Unlike many of the Titans who lived among the Olympians, Helios played an important role in many myths and legends. He had shining eyes, lustrous golden hair, and a crown of sun rays radiating from his head. He was usually described in terms as golden as his palace as well. The divisions of time that they represented were marked by the passage of Helios across the sky. Inside his gleaming palace, Helios was attended to by the Horae, or Seasons. He rested there at night before returning to the Eastern edge of the world to begin his ride across the sky again. Instead, Helios lived in a golden palace beyond the river Oceanus. He could not make his home on Mount Olympus because his shining light would have kept the other gods from sleeping. While Helios was welcomed by the gods of Olympus, he did not live among them. This earned them a place among the new pantheon, although they were still named as Titans. When Zeus and his siblings fought against the older gods, Helios and his sisters joined them.
![helios god of the sun helios god of the sun](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/cf/d2/d7cfd2024c15a920a61e0a418e89147f.jpg)
Helios was not one of the Olympian gods, however. He was followed by their other sister Selene, who drove the moon along its nighttime path. The movement of Helios across the sky was preceded by his sister Eos, the goddess of the dawn. Every day he drove his bright chariot across the sky, sinking beneath the Western horizon at night. The god of music and poetry took on aspects of the sun god until Helios was made a more minor character. He appears as a character in a good number of stories, particularly from earlier eras, but many are no longer associated with him.īecause of naming and the relative importance of different deities, Helios was often conflated with Apollo. While sun gods are important in many religions, however, Helios is rarely mentioned among the central gods of Greek mythology. One of the younger Titans, he sided with Zeus during his rebellion and was thus allowed to keep his place under the new regime.