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In ancient Greek religion and myth, the god and personification of the Sun is called Hlios.The god of sight was also a guardian of oaths.
Due to his identification with several major solar divinities of the Roman period, including Apollo and Sol, his worship grew more prominent in late antiquity.There was a brief revival of traditional Roman religious practices in the 4th century AD.
In several works of Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, he is often described as the son of the Titan Hyperion and Theia and brother to the goddess Selene.
The Greek word for the Sun is derived from Proto-Indo-European *seh2u-el.Helen is thought to be an early alternate personification of the sun among Hellenic peoples.
The female offspring were called Heliades.Some deities associated with the Sun came to be considered separate deities from the Greek sun god.Among these is Elektor, which is often translated as "beaming" or "radiant".The sun's rays are considered to be arrows.
He is the son of Theia and Hyperion.Homer refers to him as "the Sun up above" in the Odyssey.In the Odyssey, Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, there is an example of the son of Hyperion, called, Hyperionides, which is followed by many later poets.
As a handsome young man, he was crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun who drove the sun's chariot across the sky each day to Earth-circling Oceanus and back to the East at night.Pindar speaks of Helios's "fire-darting steeds" in the Homeric Hymn to Helios.The horses were given fire related names, such as Pyrois, Aeos, and Aethon.
The imagery surrounding a chariot-driving solar deity is common to both early Greek and Near Eastern religions.The earliest artistic representations of the "chariot god" come from the Parthian period in Persia where there is evidence of rituals being performed for the sun god by Magi.[16]
As a god of life and creation, Helios is seen as both a personification of the Sun and the fundamental creative power behind it.Homer described the god as a god who gives joy to mortals, and other ancient texts give him the epithet "gracious", given that he is the source of life and regeneration and associated with the creation of the world.The Greek magical Papyri says that the earth flourished when you shone forth and made the plants fruitful.[16]
L.R. Farnell assumed that sun-worship had once been prevalent and powerful among the people of the pre-Hellenic culture, but that very few of them retained it as a potent factor of state religion.The majority of the Attic literary sources used by scholars present ancient Greek religion with an Athenian bias."To believe in the existence of the gods involves acknowledgment through worship, as Laws 87 D, E shows", said James A. Notopoulos.260).The worship of the Greek Twelve Olympians and the Achaemenid Persians are very different.[ 24]
One of the only places where he was worshiped as a major deity in ancient Greece was the island of Rhodes.A ritual in which a chariot drawn by four horses was driven over a precipice into the sea was part of the worship of Helios at Rhodes.Gymnast tournaments were held in his honor.The Colossus of Rhodes was dedicated to him.The shrine of Haleion was called by the Rhodians.The Halieia was celebrated in his honor by the Rhodians.On the Greek mainland, there was a cult on the acropolis of Corinth.[28]
The Dorians hosted His primary cult on the mainland.The scattering of cults of the sun god in Sicyon, Argos, Hermione, Epidaurus and Laconia, and his holy livestock flocks at Taenarum, seem to suggest that the deity was more important than other parts of ancient Greece.It is possible that the Dorians brought his worship to Rhodes.[29]
The Ionian Proto-scientific examination of the sun and the tension between ethical values and poetical symbolism in Pindar, Aeschylus and Sophocles are related to the Greeks.The trial of Socrates for irreligion was a progenitor of his trial.
Helen is thought to be the local solar deity in Sparta.[32]
Walter Burkert observes that different names may refer to the same being, as in the case of Apollo and Helios.[33]
Apollo was identified as a plague-dealer with a silver bow and no solar features in Homeric literature.Clymene, the mother of Apollo, complains in the end of the play that she has destroyed her child.
Apollo was given the epithet Phoebus (Greek, "bright"), which was later applied to the sun-god Sol, by Latin poets.
The identification can be found in the writing of Parmenides, Empedocles, Plutarch and Crates of Thebes, as well as in some Orphic texts.In section 24 of Catasterismi, Pseudo- Eratosthenes writes about Orpheus.
Classical Latin poets used Phoebus as a byname for the sun-god, whence come common references in later European poetry to the Sun but, in particular instances, Apollo and Helios are distinct.The sun-god, with his sun chariot, though often called Phoebus, is not called Apollo except in non-traditional identifications.36
Apollo and the Roman sun god Sol were some of the deities that had religious, mythological, and literary elements.On December 25, the Roman Emperor Aurelian instituted an official state cult to Sol Invictus.A number of syncretic elements from other deities were recognized as distinct by this new cult.The so-called Mithras Liturgy, which is said to rule the elements, is one of the syncretic materials from this period.Even with the monotheistic Judaeo-Christian god, hils is often compared with deities such as Mithras and Harpocrates.[38]
The last pagan emperor of Rome made Helios the primary deity of his revived pagan religion, which combined elements of Mithraism with Neoplatonism.The Sun, the supreme god of the Intellectual realm, and the One, which governs the highest realm containing Plato's Forms, were all part of a triunity.The "middle" realm was the primary location of Helios and he was considered to be a mediator and unifier not just of the three realm of being, but also of all things.Though he also included the other traditional gods worshiped around the ancient Mediterranean as both distinct entities and also certain principles,Julian's theological conception of Helios has been described as "practically monotheistic", in contrast to earlier Neoplatonists like Iamblichus.[19]
A mosaic found in the Vatican Necropolis depicts a figure very similar to Sol/Helios, crowned with solar rays and driving a solar chariot.Clement of Alexandria wrote of Christ driving his chariot across the sky.Some scholars think that the figure is not a religious representation of the sun.[41]
The GreekMagical Papyri, a collection of hymns, rituals, and magic spells used from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD, was named after him.The god of the sea is credited with being the creator of life in these mostly fragmentary texts.He is said to take the form of 12 animals representing each hour of the day, which is connected with the 12 signs in the zodiac.[16]
The Papyri often syncretize with other deities.Harpocrates was often depicted seated on a lotus flower, representing the rising sun.According to Iamblichus, sitting on a lotus implies pre-eminence over the mud, without ever touching it, and also shows intellectual and empyrean leadership.[42][16]
In some of the Papyri, he was also assimilated with Mithras.The Mithras Liturgy is said to have revealed the secrets of immortality to the magician who wrote the text.The Egyptian sun god Ra is mentioned in some of the texts as being in a boat with Helios Mithras.In Egyptian myth, Apophis is said to attack Ra's ship during his nightly journey through the Underworld.[16]
In many of the Papyri, Iao is a name that is derived from the Hebrew god Yahweh and shares several of his titles, including Adonai.He is also known as the Agathos Daemon, the god of the gods, and the greatest god, lord Horus Harpokrates.[16]
The philosophers Proclus and Iamblichus tried to understand the Greek magical Papyri and other writings that considered Helios to be all-inclusive, with the attributes of many other divine entities.Proclus described him as a god with many forms and characteristics.These are "coiled up" within his being and are distributed to all that "participate in his nature", including angels, daemons, souls, animals, herbs, and stones.The rituals intended to invoke the gods were important to the Neoplatonic practice of theurgy.Iamblichus noted that theurgy often involved the use of stones, plants, animals, and aromatic substances.Theurgists use sympathetic magic to amplify the power of the sacred items.[16]
Usil was the god of the Sun.Next to Tiur, the Moon is a bronze liver with his name on it.He appears, rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved bronze Etruscan mirror in late Archaic style, formerly on the Roman antiquities market.He appears with a halo on Etruscan mirrors.Thesan, the goddess of the dawn, is shown in close association with Usil in ancient artwork.[46]
The highest Olympian god, Zeus, is sometimes used as a reference point in classical literature.Either Zeus' eye is referred directly or implied to be.Hesiod describes Zeus's eye as the Sun.The Sun is thought to have been seen as the eye of Dyus Patr in earlier Proto-Indo-European religion.An Orphic saying is said to have been given by an oracle of Apollo.The emperor replaced the name Dionysus with the Egyptian name Osiris.According to the oracle, the intellectual gods have a joint or rather a single sovereignty.[49]
According to Diodorus Siculus of Sicily, Cronus was named after the sun because it was the most visible of the planets.50
The god was pulled by four white horses and was supposed to drive his chariot from east to west.Homer and Hesiod did not mention the chariot or his horses in their earliest work.The chariot is said to be the work of Hephaestus, but according to Hyginus, it was himself who built it.The cup of the Delphic tripod appears to be a reference to the solar reference in one Greek vase painting.At the hour of sunset, he ascended into a cup of gold in which he passed from the Hesperides in the farthest west to the land of the Ethiops.Mimnermus said that in the night he travels eastwards with the use of a bed created by Hephaestus, rather than a cup.[55]
According to Pindar, when the gods divided the earth, he didn't get a lot of land.He complained to Zeus, who offered to do the division of portions again, but he refused because he had seen a new land emerging from the deep of the sea.The island was given to him by Zeus.Rhode was named after the daughter of Poseidon and Aphrodite, who became the first ruler of the island.[59]
In order to win the favor of the goddess, the Rhodians were ordered to immediately build an altar for her.They didn't bring fire with them because they forgot to do the sacrifice.Zeus sent a golden cloud and rained gold on them, but he still graced them with unparalleled skill in every art.61
The most well known story is about his son.Either Clymene or Rhode was the son of Helios.In Ovid's account, Zeus' son Epaphus mocks the claim that he is the son of the sun god, and Clymene tells Phaethon to ask for confirmation of his parentage.He promised to give his son any gift that he might ask, and also asked for the privilege to drive his chariot for a day.Although he warned his son of how dangerous it would be, he was unable to change his mind.The earth burns when Phaethon travels too low, and freezes when he takes the chariot too high.Zeus killed Phaethon with a lightning strike in order to save the world.At the request of the other gods and the threat of Zeus, he returns to his job.One version of the myth showed the dead son as a constellation.69
Helios was the only one to witness the abduction of Persephone.Hecate suggested that Demeter come to him and ask him if he had seen anything.She was told that she had taken an unwilling Persephone to the Underworld to be her husband.70
Hephaestus was married to Aphrodite, but she cheated on him with his brother Ares.Hephaestus informed Aphrodite's husband, who caught them in the act.Hephaestus forged a net so thin it could not be seen.He said that he was leaving for Lemnos.The two lovers made love after Ares went to Aphrodite.Hephaestus trapped them in the net when he came into the room.The other gods were called to witness the humiliation.Alectryon is tasked by Ares to stand guard should anyone approach.Alectryon fell asleep, allowing him to discover the lovers.Alectryon was turned into a rooster by Ares in order to announce the arrival of the Sun.[74]
Aphrodite would have her revenge on him.She made him fall in love with a mortal princess, forgetting his previous love, Clytia.He made the winter days longer so he could have more time looking at her.Taking the form of her mother, he came into the girl's room and revealed himself to her.Clytia, who was still in love with him, told Leucothoe's father and he buried him alive in the earth.It was too late to save her, so she was turned into a tree.Clytia hoped that this would bring him back to her, but he wanted nothing to do with her.Clytia stripped herself naked and sat on a rock for nine days, pining after him.She became the sun-gazing flower, the heliotrope, which is still in love with him.[75]
The light of the Sun was hidden by Zeus when he wanted to sleep with Alcmene.Heracles was born from this union.While Heracles traveled to Erytheia to retrieve the cattle of Geryon for his labour, he crossed the Libyan desert and shot an arrow at the sun.Heracles apologized profusely and was given the golden cup which he used to sail across the sea every night from the west to the east.The golden cup was used by Heracles to reach Erytheia.[78]
The story of how the Athenians and the Corinthians fought over the patronage of Athens was similar.There was a fight over who would get to have the city.The Acrocorinth was given to the winner of the dispute between the two gods.[80]
In a fable, the gods of the north and the south argued about which was the strongest.Whoever was able to make a traveller remove his cloak would be declared the winner.Even though he was the one to try his luck first, he couldn't remove the man's cloak, instead making him wrap his cloak around him even tighter.The traveller, overcome with the heat, removed his cloak, giving him the victory.The moral is that persuasion is better than force.[80]
It was said by Apollodorus that during the battle of the giants against the gods, the giant Alcyoneus stole the cattle from Erytheia, or alternatively, that it was he who started the war.Because of the prophecy that the giants would die at the hands of a mortal, Gaia sought to find a herb that would protect them, and thus Zeus ordered Selene and Eos not to shine.At some point during the battle of gods and giants in Phlegra, where the fight took place, he took up an exhausted Hephaestus on his chariot.One of the giants, Picolous, fled the battle against Zeus and went to Aeaea.He was killed by a man who defended his daughter.The plant sprang from the blood of the giant.This is the plant Odysseus used to save his friends.
The father of Aeetes was the Oceanid Perse.As the father of Aeetes, he was also the grandfather of Medea.When she was offered the poisoned robes and diadem, she said they were gifts.After Medea caused the deaths of Glauce and Creon, as well as her own children, Helios helped her escape by offering her a chariot pulled by dragons.Apollodorus seems to follow this version as well.[90]
After King Oenopion blinded him for attacking his daughter, he was given a guide, Cedalion, from the god Hephaestus.Cedalion was on his shoulders as he traveled to the east.After healing his eyes, he restored his eyesight.93
The future to mankind was revealed by Zeus' punishment for Phineus.He was also harassed by the Harpies, who stole or defecated food from him.According to one of the alternative versions, when Zeus asked if he preferred to die or lose sight as punishment for having his sons killed by their stepmother, Phineus chose the latter.There was an obscure victory of the prophet that caused Helios' anger.
Aelian wrote about the son of the sea god and the Oceanid.It is said that in the version where Nerites became the lover of Poseidon, he was turned into a shellfish for reasons unknown to Aelian's sources.[97]
Arge was a huntress who claimed that she would catch up to the Sun when she got to it.He turned the girl into a doe.[98]