Rough Notes:

THE HIPPOI ATHANATOI were the immortal horses of the gods. Most of these divine steeds were offspring of the four Anemoi (Wind-Gods) who themselves drew the chariot of Zeus in the guise of horses.


FAMILY OF THE HORSES

PARENTS

Mostly offspring of the ANEMOI, the HARPYIAI and POSEIDON (Various sources)


LIST OF IMMORTAL HORSES

ABRAXAS An alternative name for one of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

AITHON (1) (Aethon) One of the fire-breathing steeds of Ares.

AITHON (2) (Aethon) An alternative name for one of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

AITHOPS (Aethops) One of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

ANEMOI, THE The gods of the four winds, who in the guise of horses drew the chariot of Zeus.

AREION (Arion) An immortal horse owned by Herakles and later the hero Adrastos.

BALIOS (Balius) One of a pair of immortal horses gifted to the hero Peleus by the gods. The drove the chariot of his son Akhilleus (Achilles) in the Trojan War.

BOREAS The god of the North-Wind who, in the shape of a horse, drew the chariot of Zeus.

BRONTE One of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

EUOS One of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

EUROS (Eurus) The god of the East-Wind who, in the shape of a horse, drew the chariot of Zeus.

HARPAGOS (Harpagus) One of the immortal horses of the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri) twins.

HIPPALEKTRYON (Hippalectryon) A creature with the foreparts of a rooster and the rearparts of a horse.

HIPPOKAMPOI (Hippocamps) Fish-tailed horses of the sea, four of which drew the chariot of Poseidon.

KONABOS (Conabus) One of the fire breathing steeds of Ares.

KYLLAROS (Cyllarus) One of the immortal horses of the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri) twins.

LAMPOS (Lampus) One of the two immortal steeds of the dawn-goddess Eos.

NOTOS (Notus) The god of the South-Wind who, in the shape of a horse, drew the chariot of Zeus.

PEGASOS (Pegasus) A winged immortal horse born from the neck of the beheaded Gorgon Medousa (Medusa).

PEGASOI (Pegasi) A breed of winged immortal horses.

PHAETHON One of the two immortal steeds of the dawn-goddess Eos.

PHLEGON An alternative name for one of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

PHLOGEUS (1) One of the immortal horses of the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri) twins.

PHLOGEUS (2) One of the fire-breathing steeds of Ares.

PHOBOS (Phobus) One of the fire-breathing steeds of Ares.

PODARKES (Podarces) One of a pair of immortal horses owned by Erekhtheus (Erechtheus), king of Athens.

PYROIS An alternative name for one of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

SKYLLA (Scylla) One of the eight immortal horses which drew the chariot of Poseidon.

STEROPE One of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

STHENIOS (Sthenius) One of the eight horses of the sea-god Poseidon.

THERBEEO An alternative name for one of the four immortal horses of the sun-god Helios.

TROJAN HIPPOI, THE The twelve immortal horses owned by the Trojan kings Erikhthonios (Erichthonius) and Laomedon. They were promised to Herakles as reward for rescuing princess Hesione from a sea-monster.

XANTHOS (1) (Xanthus) One of a pair of immortal horses gifted to the hero Peleus by the gods. The drove the chariot of his son Akhilleus (Achilles) in the Trojan War.

XANTHOS (2) (Xanthus) One of the immortal horses of the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri) twins.

XANTHOS (3) (Xanthus) One of a pair of immortal horses owned by Erekhtheus (Erechtheus), king of Athens.

ZEPHYROS (Zephyrus) The god of the West-Wind who, in the shape of a horse, drew the chariot of Zeus.


ALTERNATE NAMES

Greek Name

Ἱππος Αμβροτος
Ἱπποι Αμβροτοι

Transliteration

Hippos Ambrotus
Hippoi Ambrotoi

Latin Spelling

--
--

Translation

Divine Horse
Divine Horses


CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

THE HORSES OF HERA

The horses and chariot of Zeus | Athenian red-figure amphora C4th B.C. | Musée du Louvre, Paris
Horses and chariot of Zeus, Athenian red-figure amphora C4th B.C., Musée du Louvre

Homer, Iliad 5. 711 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Hera, high goddess, daughter of Kronos (Cronus) the mighty, went away to harness the gold-bridled [immortal] horses. Then Hebe in speed set about the chariot the curved wheels eight-spoked and brazen, with an axle of iron both ways. Golden is the wheel's felly imperishable, and outside it is joined, a wonder to look upon, the brazen running-rim, and the silver naves revolve on either side of the chariot, whereas the car itself is lashed fast with plaiting of gold and silver, with double chariot rials that circle about it, and the pole of the chariot is of silver, to whose extremity Hebe made fast the golden and splendid yoke, and fastened the harness, golden and splendid, and underneath the yoke Hera, furious for hate and battle, led the swift-running horses . . . 
Hera laid the lash swiftly on the horses; and moving of themselves groaned the gates of the sky that the Horai (Horae) guarded . . . Through the way between they held the speed of their goaded horses . . . 
Hera lashed on the horses, and they winged their way unreluctant through the space between the earth and the starry heaven. As far as into the hazing distance a man can see with his eyes, who sits in his eyrie gazing on the wine-blue water, as far as this is the stride of the gods' proud neighing horses. Now as they cam to Troy land and the two running rivers where Simoeis and Skamandros (Scamander) dash their waters together, there the goddess of the white arms, Hera, stayed her horses, slipping them from the chariot, and drifting close mist about them, and Simoeis grew as grass ambrosia for them to graze on."

Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 5. 184 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :
"Juno [Hera] and Pallas [Athena] in full panoply of glittering cloud, bring to a halt the chariots of the wing-footed steeds."


THE HORSES OF ZEUS

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 12. 189 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"Zeus, at the utmost verge of earth, was ware of all: straight left he Okeanos' (Oceanus') stream, and to wide heaven ascended, charioted upon the Anemoi (Winds), Euros (the East), Boreas (the North), Zephyros (the West-wind), and Notos (the South) : for Iris rainbow-plumed led 'neath the yoke of his eternal ear that stormy team, the ear which Aion (Time) the immortal framed for him of adamant with never-wearying hands." [N.B. The four-wind gods are assumed to have the guise of horses.]


THE HORSES OF POSEIDON

Horses and chariot of Poseidon | Athenian black-figure dinos C6th B.C. | British Museum, London
Horses and chariot of Poseidon, Athenian black-figure dinos C6th B.C., British Museum

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 5. 88 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"[Depicted on the shield of Akhilleus (Achilles) :] And there triumphant the Earth-shaker [Poseidon] rode amid Ketea (Cetea, Sea-Monsters): stormy-footed steeds [i.e. Hippokampoi (Hippocamps)] drew him, and seemed alive, as o'er the deep they raced, oft smitten by the golden whip. Around their path of flight the waves fell smooth, and all before them was unrippled calm. Dolphins on either hand about their king swarmed, in wild rapture of homage bowing backs, and seemed like live things o'er the hazy sea swimming, albeit all of silver wrought."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1. 207 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Many a time in the weedy gulf he [Typhoeus] seized Poseidon's chariot, and dragged it from the depths of the sea to land; again he pulled out a stallion by his brine-soaked mane from the undersea manger, and threw the vagabond nag to the vault of heaven, shooting his shot at Olympos--hit Helios the Sun's chariot, and the horses on their round whinnied under the yoke."


THE HORSES OF ARES

See the HIPPOI AREIOI


IMMORTAL HORSES MISCELLANY

Horses and chariot of Apollo | Athenian black-figure dinos C6th B.C. | British Museum, London
Horses and chariot of Apollo, Athenian black-figure dinos C6th B.C., British Museum

Plato, Phaedrus 246 (trans. Fowler) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"A pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent . . . Zeus, the mighty lord, holding the reins of a winged chariot, leads the way in heaven, ordering all and taking care of all; and there follows him the array of gods and demigods, marshalled in eleven bands [i.e. of the twelve Olympians] . . . The chariots of the gods in even poise, obeying the rein, glide rapidly . . . she passes down into the interior of the heavens and returns home; and there the charioteer putting up his horses at the stall, gives them ambrosia to eat and nectar to drink."

Oppian, Cynegetica 1. 225 (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd A.D.) :
"To Horses beyond all mortal creatures cunning Nature has given a subtle mind and heart. Always they know their own dear charioteer and they neigh when they see their glorious rider and greatly mourn their comrade when he falls in war. Ere now in battle a horse [Xanthos] has burst the bonds of silence and overleapt the ordinance of nature and taken a human voice and a tongue like that of man . . . A horse [Areion (Arion)] there was which ran with light feet over the corn-ears and brake them not; another [offspring of Boreas] ran over the sea and wetted not his coronet. A horse [Pegasos] carried above the clouds him [Bellerophon] that slew the Khimaira (Chimera)."


OTHER CHARIOT-BEASTS OF THE GODS

Some of the gods employed had more fabulous creatures draw their chariots:--

Aphrodite's chariot was drawn by doves or a pair of winged Erotes (Love-Gods);
Apollon's chariot was sometimes drawn by swans;
Artemis' chariot was drawn by the four Kerynitian Hinds, immortal golden-horned deer;
Demeter's chariot was borne through the air by winged Drakones (Dragon-Serpents);
Dionysos' chariot was harnessed with four panthers;
Nemesis' chariot was pulled by four Grypes (Griffins);
Poseidon's sea-chariot was sometimes drawn by Hippokampoi (Hippocamps);
Selene's chariot was drawn by oxen or Pegasoi (Pegasi);
Rhea's chariot was pulled by lions.

Phaethon was a little boy who lived alone with his mother. He started going to school, and the other children teased him because he didn’t have any father. So when he got home he asked his mother, “Mom, who is my father?” At first his mother didn’t want to tell him, but then she said, “Your father is the sun god, Helios. He lives up in the sky and drives the chariot of the sun.” Phaethon was like, “Really? Cool ! Wow, wait till I tell the other kids!”

But when Phaethon told them, the other kids made fun of him. “Yeah, right,” they said. “You just don’t know who your dad is and you’re making this up. You expect us to believe your dad is a god? How likely is that?”

Phaethon sulked for a while and then he decided to show those mean kids what was what. He took a little food in a leather bag and he walked and he walked and he walked until he got to the end of the earth and he found where the gods were and got to Helios. He said, “Lord Helios, are you really my dad?” And Helios said, “Yes, I am.” Phaethon said “Well if you are really my dad then let me drive the chariot of the sun one time. That will show everyone at school and they’ll stop making fun of me.”

Well, Helios really didn’t want to do that. Phaethon was only a little boy, and he was only half a god, and he certainly wasn’t strong enough to handle those wild horses of the chariot of the sun! But Phaethon begged and cried and sulked and teased and after a long time Helios gave in and said “Okay, you can drive them, but just this once. And you must be very very careful.” Phaethon promised to be very careful. He was very happy that he was going to get to prove that he was really Helios’ son.

So Helios showed him how to do it, and Phaethon got up on the chariot and took the reins of the horses and off they went. At first it went fine, and Phaethon waved at all his friends down on the ground and was very pleased with himself.

But then the horses, feeling that it was only a little boy holding the reins, began to run away! Phaethon could not hold them back, though he pulled as hard as he could pull. The horses went too far up into the sky, so that the sun was too far from the earth. It got dark, and cold, and plants began to die. Everyone was very scared.


Here’s a video of Phaethon’s story

Then the horses went the other way, too close to the earth. That was even worse! It got too hot everywhere, and everything began to burn up. Finally Helios, who had been watching in horror, went to Zeus and said, “Lord Zeus, I made a mistake. I let my little boy Phaethon drive the chariot of the sun, and he is too little. Now the whole earth is going to burn up. Please throw a thunderbolt at him and knock him out of the chariot before things get any worse.” He said this, even though he loved his little boy and didn’t want to hurt him, but he had to.
So Zeus knocked Phaethon out of the chariot, and he fell to earth and died. But Helios was able to catch the horses then, and made the sun go back in its usual way.

Learn by doing: observe plants that are too cold or too hot. What do they do?
More about the god Apollo

Bibliography and further reading about the story of Phaethon:

D’aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths, by Edgar and Ingri D’Aulaire.

Euripides: Phaethon, edited by James Diggle and others (2004). The main ancient source for the story is a fragmentary play by Euripides; this is a discussion of that play, with commentary on the myth, by specialists for specialists.

Helios

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Helios
Personification of the Sun
Head Helios AM Rhodes E49.jpg

Head of Helios, middle period, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes
Abode Sky
Symbol Chariot, horse, aureole, rooster, incense, heliotrope, sunflower
Personal Information
Consort Many including: ClymeneKlytiePerseRhodos, and Leucothea
Children Many including: The CharitesPhaethon, The HoraeAeëtesCircePerses (brother of Aeetes)PasiphaëHeliadae and Heliades
Parents Hyperion and Theia
Siblings SeleneEos
Roman equivalent Sol
Hinduism equivalent Surya

Helios (/ˈhli.ɒs/Ancient GreekἭλιος HēliosLatinized as HeliusἨέλιος in Homeric Greek) was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. He is the son of the TitanHyperion and the Titaness Theia (according to Hesiod), also known as Euryphaessa (in Homeric Hymn 31) and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn.

Helios was described as a handsome titan crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to earth-circling Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to the East at night. In the Homeric hymn to Helios, Helios is said to drive a golden chariot drawn by steeds (HH 31.14–15); and Pindar speaks of Helios's "fire-darting steeds" (Olympian Ode 7.71). Still later, the horses were given fire related names: Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon.

As time passed, Helios was increasingly identified with the god of light, Apollo. However, in spite of their syncretism, they were also often viewed as two distinct gods/titan (Helios was a Titan, whereas Apollo was an Olympian). The equivalent of Helios in Roman mythology was Sol.

Names[edit]

The Greek ἥλιος is the inherited word for the Sun, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂u-el[1] which is cognate with Latin solSanskrit suryaOld English sweglOld Norse sólWelsh haul, etc.[2]

The female offspring of Helios were called Heliades. The Greek sun god had various bynames or epithets, which over time in some cases came to be considered separate deities associated with the Sun. Most notably, Helios is closely associated with, and sometimes consciously identified with, Apollo.

Diodorus Siculus of Sicily reported that the Chaldeans called Cronus (Saturn) by the name Helios, or the sun, and he explained that this was because Saturn was the most conspicuous of the planets.[3]

Among these is Hyperion (superus, "high up"), Elektor (of uncertain derivation, often translated as "beaming" or "radiant"; especially in the combination elektor Hyperion), Phaëton "the radiant", Hekatos (of Apollo, also Hekatebolos"far-shooter", i.e. the sun's rays considered as arrows).

Greek mythology[edit]

 

Helios in his chariot, early 4th century BC, Athena's temple, Ilion

The best known story involving Helios is that of his son Phaethon, who attempted to drive his father's chariot but lost control and set the earth on fire. If Zeus had not interfered by throwing a thunderbolt at Phaethon, killing him instantly, all mortals would have died.

Helios was sometimes characterized with the epithet Panoptes ("the all-seeing"). In the story told in the hall of Alcinous in the Odyssey (viii.300ff.), Aphrodite, the consort of Hephaestus, secretly beds Ares, but all-seeing Helios spies on them and tells Hephaestus, who ensnares the two lovers in nets invisibly fine, to punish them.

In the OdysseyOdysseus and his surviving crew land on Thrinacia, an island sacred to the sun god, whom Circe names Hyperion rather than Helios. There, the sacred red[citation needed]cattle of the Sun were kept:

You will now come to the Thrinacian island, and here you will see many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep belonging to the sun-god. There will be seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep, with fifty heads in each flock. They do not breed, nor do they become fewer in number, and they are tended by the goddesses Phaethusa and Lampetia, who are children of the sun-god Hyperion by Neaera. Their mother when she had borne them and had done suckling them sent them to the Thrinacian island, which was a long way off, to live there and look after their father's flocks and herds.[4]

Though Odysseus warns his men, when supplies run short they impiously kill and eat some of the cattle of the Sun. The guardians of the island, Helios' daughters, tell their father about this. Helios appeals to Zeus telling them to dispose of Odysseus' men or he will take the Sun and shine it in the Underworld. Zeus destroys the ship with his lightning bolt, killing all the men except for Odysseus.

 

Solar Apollo with the radiant halo of Helios in a Roman floor mosaic, El Djem, Tunisia, late 2nd century

In one Greek vase painting, Helios appears riding across the sea in the cup of the Delphic tripod which appears to be a solar reference. Athenaeus in Deipnosophistae relates that, at the hour of sunset, Helios climbed into a great golden cup in which he passes from the Hesperides in the farthest west to the land of the Ethiops, with whom he passes the dark hours. While Heracles traveled to Erytheia to retrieve the cattle of Geryon, he crossed the Libyan desert and was so frustrated at the heat that he shot an arrow at Helios, the Sun. Almost immediately, Heracles realized his mistake and apologized profusely, in turn and equally courteous, Helios granted Heracles the golden cup which he used to sail across the sea every night, from the west to the east because he found Heracles' actions immensely bold. Heracles used this golden cup to reach Erytheia.[5]

By the Oceanid Perse, Helios became the father of AeëtesCircePerses (brother of Aeetes) and Pasiphaë. His other children are Phaethusa ("radiant") and Lampetia ("shining").[6]

Helios and Apollo[edit]

 

Helios as the personification of midday by Anton Raphael Mengs. Notice the apollonian traits absent in mythology and Hellenic art, such as the lack of a chariot and the bow and arrow.

Helios is sometimes identified with Apollo: "Different names may refer to the same being," Walter Burkert observes, "or else they may be consciously equated, as in the case of Apollo and Helios."[7]

In Homeric literature, Apollo is clearly identified as a different god, a plague-dealer with a silver (not golden) bow and no solar features.

The earliest certain reference to Apollo identified with Helios appears in the surviving fragments of Euripides' play Phaethon in a speech near the end (fr 781 N²), Clymene, Phaethon's mother, laments that Helios has destroyed her child, that Helios whom men rightly call Apollo (the name Apollo is here understood to mean Apollon"Destroyer").

By Hellenistic times Apollo had become closely connected with the Sun in cult. His epithet Phoebus, Phoibos "shining", drawn from Helios, was later also applied by Latin poets to the sun-god Sol.

 

Coin of Roman Emperor Constantine I depicting Sol Invictus/Apollo with the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, c. 315 AD.

The identification became a commonplace in philosophic texts and appears in the writing of ParmenidesEmpedoclesPlutarch and Crates of Thebes among others, as well as appearing in some Orphic texts. Pseudo-Eratosthenes writes about Orpheus in Catasterismi, section 24:

"But having gone down into Hades because of his wife and seeing what sort of things were there, he did not continue to worship Dionysus, because of whom he was famous, but he thought Helios to be the greatest of the gods, Helios whom he also addressed as Apollo. Rousing himself each night toward dawn and climbing the mountain called Pangaion, he would await the sun's rising, so that he might see it first. Therefore, Dionysus, being angry with him, sent the Bassarides, as Aeschylus the tragedian says; they tore him apart and scattered the limbs."[8]

Dionysus and Asclepius are sometimes also identified with this Apollo Helios.[9]

Classical Latin poets also used Phoebus as a byname for the sun-god, whence come common references in later European poetry to Phoebus and his car ("chariot") as a metaphor for the sun. But in particular instances in myth, Apollo and Helios are distinct. The sun-god, the son of Hyperion, with his sun chariot, though often called Phoebus("shining") is not called Apollo except in purposeful non-traditional identifications.[10]

Despite these identifications, Apollo was never actually described by the Greek poets driving the chariot of the sun, although it was common practice among Latin poets. Therefore, Helios is still known as the "sun god" – the one who drives the sun chariot across the sky each day.

 

Bust of Alexander the Great as an eidolon of Helios (Musei Capitolini).

Helios and Zeus[edit]

Helios is also sometimes conflated in classical literature with another Olympian god, Zeus. Helios is referred either directly as Zeus' eye,[11] or clearly implied to be. For instance, Hesiod effectively describes Zeus's eye as the sun.[12] This perception is possibly derived from earlier Proto-Indo-European religion, in which the sun is believed to have been envisioned as the eye of *Dyḗus Pḥatḗr (see Hvare-khshaeta).

Cult of Helios[edit]

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 the communities of the later historic period retained it as a potent factor of the state religion."[13] Our largely Attic literary sources tend to give us an unavoidable Athenian bias when we look at ancient Greek religion, and "no Athenian could be expected to worship Helios or Selene," J. Burnet observes, "but he might think them to be gods, since Helios was the great god of Rhodes and Selene was worshiped at Elis and elsewhere."[14] James A. Notopoulos considers Burnet's an artificial distinction: "To believe in the existence of the gods involves acknowledgment through worship, as Laws 87 D, E shows" (note, p. 264).[15] AristophanesPeace (406-413) contrasts the worship of Helios and Selene with that of the more essentially Greek Twelve Olympians, as the representative gods of the Achaemenid Persians; all the evidence shows that Helios and Selene were minor gods to the Greeks.[16]

"The island of Rhodes is almost the only place where Helios enjoys an important cult", Burkert asserts (p 174), instancing a spectacular rite in which a quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses, is driven over a precipice into the sea, with its overtones of the plight of Phaethon noted. Their annual gymnastic tournaments were held in his honor. The Colossus of Rhodes was dedicated to him. Helios also had a significant cult on the acropolis of Corinth on the Greek mainland.[17]

However, the Dorians seem to have revered Helios, offering the central mainland cultus for Helios. The scattering of cults of the sun god in SicyonArgosErmioniEpidaurus and Laconia, and his holy livestock flocks at Taenarum, seem to suggest that the deity was considerably important in Dorian religion, compared to other parts of ancient Greece. Additionally, it may have been the Dorians to import his worship to Rhodes.[18]

The tension between the mainstream traditional religious veneration of Helios, which had become enriched with ethical values and poetical symbolism in PindarAeschylus and Sophocles,[19]and the Ionian proto-scientific examination of Helios the Sun, a phenomenon of the study Greeks termed meteora, clashed in the trial of Anaxagoras[20] c. 450 BC, a forerunner of the culturally traumatic trial of Socrates for irreligion, in 399 BC.

In Plato's Republic (516 B), Helios, the Sun, is the symbolic offspring of the idea of the Good.

Usil, the Etruscan Helios[edit]

The Etruscan god of the Sun, equivalent to Helios, was Usil. His name appears on the bronze liver of Piacenza, next to Tiur, the moon.[21] He appears, rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscan bronze mirror in late Archaic style, formerly on the Roman antiquities market.[22] On Etruscan mirrors in Classical style, he appears with a halo.

Helios Megistos[edit]

In Late Antiquity a cult of Helios Megistos ("Great Helios") (Sol Invictus) drew to the image of Helios a number of syncretic elements, which have been analysed in detail by Wilhelm Fauth by means of a series of late Greek texts, namely:[23] an Orphic Hymn to Helios; the so-called Mithras Liturgy, where Helios rules the elements; spells and incantations invoking Helios among the Greek Magical Papyri; a Hymn to Helios by ProclusJulian's Oration to Helios, the last stand of official paganism; and an episode in NonnusDionysiaca.

Consorts and children[edit]

Notes[edit]

  • Listed above are the most common versions of the myths considering mothers of Helios' children; other ones are known as well, for instance:
  • According to Ovid's MetamorphosesClytie, sister of Leucothoe, also loved Helios, but didn't have her feelings answered[57]
  • Anaxibia, an Indian Naiad, was lusted after by Helios according to Pseudo-Plutarch[58]

Horses of Helios[edit]

Some lists, cited by Hyginus, of the names of horses that pulled Helios' chariot, are as follows.

• According to Homer - late 8th/ early 7th century BC: Abraxas, *Therbeeo.

• According to Eumelus of Corinth - late 7th/ early 6th century BC: The male trace horses are Eous (by him the sky is turned) and Aethiops (as if faming, parches the grain) and the female yoke-bearers are Bronte ("Thunder") and Sterope ("Lightning").

• According to Ovid - Roman, 1st century BC Phaethon's ridePyrois ("the fiery one"), Eous ("he who turns the sky"), Aethon ("blazing"), and Phlegon" ("burning").[59]

Epithets[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ R. S. P. BeekesEtymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 516.
  2. Jump up^ heliosOnline Etymology Dictionary.
  3. Jump up^ Noted in “epiphanestaton" — the most conspicuous (II. 30. 3-4). See also Franz Boll – Kronos-Helios, Archiv für Religionswissenschaft XIX (1919), p. 344.
  4. Jump up^ Homer, Odyssey xii.127–137.
  5. Jump up^ Noted in Kerenyi 1951:191, note 595.
  6. Jump up^ Theoi Project: Lampetia and Phaethusa
  7. Jump up^ Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, p. 120.
  8. Jump up^ Homer, William Cullen Bryant (1809). The Iliad of Homer. Ashmead.
  9. Jump up^ G. Lancellotti, Attis, Between Myth and History: King, Priest, and God, BRILL, 2002
  10. Jump up^ O'Rourke Boyle Marjorie (1991). Petrarch's genius: pentimento and prophecy. University of California press. ISBN 978-0-520-07293-0.
  11. Jump up^ Sick, David H. (2004), "Mit(h)ra(s) and the Myths of the Sun", Numen, 51 (4): 432–467, JSTOR 3270454
  12. Jump up^ Ljuba Merlina Bortolani, Magical Hymns from Roman Egypt: A Study of Greek and Egyptian Traditions of Divinity, Cambridge University Press, 13/10/2016
  13. Jump up^ Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States (New York/London: Oxford University Press) 1909, vol. v, p 419f.
  14. Jump up^ J. Burnet, Plato: Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, and Crito (New York/London: Oxford University Press) 1924, p. 111.
  15. Jump up^ James A. Noutopolos, "Socrates and the Sun" The Classical Journal 37.5 (February 1942), pp. 260-274.
  16. Jump up^ Notopoulos 1942:265.
  17. Jump up^ Pausanias. Description of Greece, 2.1.6.
  18. Jump up^ Larson, Jennifer. A Land Full of Gods: Nature Deities in Greek Religion. In Ogden, Daniel. A Companion to Greek Religion. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, 56–70.
  19. Jump up^ Notopoulos 1942 instances Aeschylus' Agamemnon 508, Choephoroe993, Suppliants 213, and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex 660, 1425f.
  20. Jump up^ Anaxagoras described the sun as a red-hot stone.
  21. Jump up^ Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, Etruscan Myths (Series The Legendary Past, British Museum/University of Texas) 2006:77.
  22. Jump up^ Noted by J. D. Beazley, "The World of the Etruscan Mirror" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 69 (1949:1–17) p. 3, fig. 1.
  23. Jump up^ Wilhelm Fauth, Helios Megistos: zur synkretistischen Theologie der Spätantike (Leiden:Brill) 1995.
  24. Jump up^ PausaniasDescription of Greece, 9.35.5 with a reference to Antimachus
  25. Jump up^ Hesychius of Alexandria s. v. Aiglēs Kharites
  26. Jump up^ Hesiod Theogony 907
  27. Jump up^ Anacreontea Fragment 38
  28. Jump up^ Ovid Metamorphoses 2.340; Hyginus Fabulae 154
  29. Jump up^ Nonnus Dionysiaca 17.269
  30. Jump up^ Homer Odyssey 12.128
  31. Jump up^ Ovid Metamorphoses 2.340
  32. Jump up^ Diodorus SiculusLibrary of History 5.56.3
  33. Jump up^ NonnusDionysiaca, 14.44
  34. Jump up^ HesiodTheogony 956
  35. Jump up^ Pseudo-ApollodorusBibliotheca 1.80
  36. Jump up^ Diodorus SiculusLibrary of History 4.45.1
  37. Jump up^ HyginusFabulae 27
  38. Jump up^ Pseudo-PlutarchOn Rivers, 5.1
  39. Jump up^ OvidMetamorphoses 4.169 ff
  40. Jump up to:a b HyginusFabulae 14
  41. Jump up^ Apollonius RhodiusArgonautica 1.172
  42. Jump up^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Bisaltia
  43. Jump up^ Quintus SmyrnaeusFall of Troy, 10.337
  44. Jump up^ Suidas "Aithon"
  45. Jump up^ Hyginus Astronomica 2.13
  46. Jump up^ PausaniasGuide to Greece 2.1.1
  47. Jump up^ HyginusFabulae 275
  48. Jump up^ Pseudo-PlutarchOn Rivers, 25
  49. Jump up^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Ambrakia
  50. Jump up^ Scholia on Pindar, Olympian Ode 6.131
  51. Jump up^ TzetzesChiliades, 4. 363
  52. Jump up^ Epimenides in scholia on Apollonius RhodiusArgonautica, 3.242
  53. Jump up^ Diophantus in scholia on Apollonius RhodiusArgonautica, 3.242
  54. Jump up^ Argonautica Orphica, 1217
  55. Jump up^ Diodorus SiculusLibrary of History, 4.60.4
  56. Jump up^ Scholia on Apollonius RhodiusArgonautica, 1.172
  57. Jump up^ Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.194 ff
  58. Jump up^ On Rivers, 3.3
  59. Jump up^ Hyginus Fabulae 183

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