Tag: Greek Sun God

Helios – The Sun God

Helios rides his Chariot across the sky

HELIOS FACTS
Name(s): Helios
Rules over: The Sun
Title: Titan God of the Sun
Gender: Male
Symbols: Sun, Chariot, Aureole
Sacred animals: Horse, Rooster, Cattle, Wolf
Items: Frankincense, Cornucopia, Black Poplar, Heliotrope
Parents: Hyperion and Theia
Consort: Clymene, Rhode – possible others: – Clytie, Perse, Leucothea
Other significant others: Siblings: – Selene and Eos
Children: Abundant children including: – The Charites, Phaethon, The Horae, Pasiphae, Circe, Aeëtes, Heliadae, and Heliades
Roman name: Sol

Helios – The Sun God: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net –

A handsome Titan with flowing hair, driving a golden chariot pulled by four fiery steeds across the sky.

That was the image that would come to the minds of ancient Greeks when they thought of Helios. To them, he was the representation of the sun and sunlight, traveling across the sky every day. Some authors report that select Greeks revered him as much as they did Zeus.

Helios Appearance

Artwork of the time often shows Helios to be wearing a shining aureole, or halo, of the sun upon his head. He had piercing eyes and long, curly hair.

Family History

Helios was the son of the Titan Hyperion and the Titaness, Theia, making him a second generation Titan.
His sisters were goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn.

Wives

Children of Helios

Helios sired many children with his different wives. The Charites, Phaethon, The Horae, Pasiphaë, Circe, Aeëtes, Heliadae, and Heliades are among his known offspring.

The All Seeing Eye

It is not uncommon so see Helios given the epitaph Panoptes, or all-seeing, as the Greeks believed that he could witness anything in the heavens or on earth.

According to the myth about Persephone’s abduction by Hades, it was Helios who saw the crime occur. When Demeter, Persephone’s mother, demanded to know the whereabout of her daughter, the Titan was able to inform her that Hades had kidnapped the goddess.

Another tale illustrating his ability describes Helios witnessing an affair between Aphrodite and Ares. He reported this to Hephaestus, Aphrodite’s husband, and helped set a trap to catch the two lovers. Caught in the act, the gods then banished Ares from Olympus for his crime.

This ability would have made him a valuable friend to keep and a frightening enemy to have.

Daily Travels

As the sun god, Helios would make a daily journey across the sky. Four horses, Aethon, Pyrois, Phlegon and Eous, drew his chariot.

Each morning, his sister, Eos, would paint the dawn sky with her fingers and pull the misty curtain, through which Helios would appear, aside. He would drive his blazing chariot across the heavens until his travels were complete. At this time, he would he would hide in a golden cup that fell to earth while his sister, Eos, would begin her nightly trek.

Meeting with Hercules

Legend has it that one day while lost in his quest to find the island of Erythia, Hercules grew frustrated and shot an arrow towards the sun. Upon realizing what he had done, he apologized to the Titan. Helios, however, was so taken with the boldness of this action that he presented Hercules with his golden cup. Hercules was then able to use this cup to reach his destination.

Helios Appearance in The Odyssey

Helios has a small but notable role in the Odyssey. When Odysseus and his men land on Thrinacia, one of the islands dedicated to the sun god, Odysseus warns them not to touch any of Helios’ cattle or sheep that graze on the land. They do not heed this warning and, in his absence, slaughter some of the best of the animals.

Alerted to this by one of his daughters, Helios appeals to Zeus for revenge. He threatens to take the sun and shine it onto the dead of the Underworld, instead of on the earth, if the men’s act goes unpunished. Zeus then strikes the crew’s ship with a lightning bolt, killing everyone except for Odysseus.

Cult Worship

The island of Rhodes, believed to have been shaped by Helios, is a place where people honored him as an important deity. Legend has it that when the island first came into being, it was muddy and uninhabitable. Helios dried the land and filled it with life, including seven of his sons known as Heliadae. Because of Helios’ life-giving intervention, some residents of the island worshiped him, and the island became sacred to Helios.

In the 3rd Century BC the people of Rhodes built the Colossus of Rhodes which was a 30 metre (90 foot) statue of Helios, it was won of the Seven wonders of the Ancient world.

The Dorians, one of the four major ethnic groups of Greece at the time, also seemed to have celebrated Helios more than many Greeks of the era. There is even speculation that they were the people who brought the worship of the sun god to Rhodes.

Conclusion

Despite having what some historians believe to be a significant place in the Greeks’ hearts, Helios did not play a massive part in their mythology, and it seems that he was eventually replaced by Apollo. Nevertheless, his image as the handsome Titan driving a blazing chariot pulled through the sky by his fire-breathing steeds lives on to this day.

Quick Facts:

Mother: Theia
Father: Hyperion
Siblings: Selene and Eos
Known wives/consorts: Selene, Perse, Clymene, Aegle, Neaera, Rhodos, Ocyrrhoe, Leucothoe, Nausidame, and Gaia
Known as: the Sun God
Roman equivalent: Sol

Other Gods And Goddesses – Deities For Power

Other Gods And Goddesses

Because the deities come from so many cultures and times, it is important to invoke only the positive qualities you need and to remember that some did reflect dark as well as benign aspects of divinity. For example, Diana, the goddess of the Moon and the hunt, is thought by most to be a sympathetic soul; but you might be surprised to learn that she would, according to myth, have her rejected lovers torn apart by her hounds. So, when setting up your icons, read about them first, and decide which are the attributes that will assist your magical workings. Some deities fit into more than one category, so I have listed them under their most significant one.

Deities For Power

These deities may be invoked for strength, success, energy, inspiration and increase.

Apollo

Apollo, the Greek Sun God, was twin brother of Artemis, the Moon Goddess. As god of the solar light, Apollo made the fruits of the Earth ripen, and at Delos and Delphi where he slew Python, the first crops were dedicated to him. (Python, the great lightning serpent, was the son-consort of the Mother Goddess in her form of Delphyne, the Womb of Creation, fertilised by Python. Python in this sense predated all other gods and was later called the Dark Sun, Apollo’s alter ego. The Ancient Greeks rededicated his shrine to Apollo.)

Apollo was god of prophecy as well as music, poetry, archery, healing and divination. He is very strongly animus and is good for all rituals of power, ambition and inspiration, as well as those areas under his patronage. Men tend to work better with him than women.

Aine

Aine is daughter of Manananann, Celtic Sea God and ruler of the Isle of Man and goddess of the cycles of the solar and lunar year. Even during the twentieth century, she was remembered on the Hill of Aine in Ireland, by torchlight processions and burning straw at midsummer and also at the old corn harvest, Lughnassadh, at the beginning of August. She is also linked with love, fertility and healing.

Ama-terasu Omikami

Ama-terasu Omikami is the Ancient Japanese Sun Goddess. Her name means ‘Great August Spirit Shining in Heaven’ but she is also called Shinmet, ‘Divine Radiance’ and O-hiru-me-no-muchi, ‘Great Female Possessor of Noon’.

She is good for female-focused Sun rituals and for ceremonial magick.

Helios

The Greek god Helios, known to the Romans as Sol, was regarded as the Sun itself. He ascended the heavens in a chariot drawn by winged snow-white horses to give light and in the evening descended into the ocean. Homer wrote:

‘Drawn in his swift chariot, he sheds light on gods and men alike; the formidable flash of his eyes pierces his golden helmet, sparkling rays glint from his breast and his brilliant helmet gives forth a dazzling splendour. His body is draped in shining gauze, whipped by the wind.’

He is especially associated with the life force and renewing health and energy.

Horus

Horus was the Ancient Egyptian Sky God, represented as a falcon or a falcon-headed man. His eyes were the Sun and Moon and his wings could extend across the entire heavens. He was frequently associated with the morning aspect of Ra, the Sun God, and worshipped as Re-Harakhte. The son of Isis and Osiris, he is often depicted as an infant on his mother’s lap and together the parents and child form a trinity.

Horus brings clarity of mind and purpose and the ability to seize upon an opportunity, and is effective for uncovering secrets, deception and illusion.

Lugh

Lugh, the Celtic ‘shining one’, who gives his name to Lughnassadh, Celtic festival of the first harvest, was the young solar deity who replaced the Dagda, father of the gods, as supreme king. He was associated with sacrifice, as the Sun King who was reborn each year at either the mid-winter solstice or the spring equinox.

Legend has it that when Lugh arrived to join the Tuatha de Danaan, he went to the palace of Tara and asked for a position in the court. (The Tuatha de Danaan were the ancient Irish gods and goddesses, literally ‘the tribe of Danu’, who was the creatrix goddess.) He said he was a carpenter, but was told that the company of gods already had one.

Lugh then declared he was a smith but again was told that the deities possessed such a craftsman. He then announced that he was a poet, then in turn a warrior, historian, hero and sorcerer. Each position was filled. Lugh then demanded whether any one person could perform all these tasks as he could. As a result, he was admitted to the Tuatha de Danaan and eventually became their leader.

You can invoke Lugh especially at the time of Lughnassadh, for the reaping of benefits sown earlier in the year, but also at any time for adaptability, versatility, innovation and originality.