When was helios born

Alerted to this by one of his daughters, Helios appeals to Zeus for revenge. 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. 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. 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.

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content. Home » Helios. Helios, the Sun God 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. Appearance Artwork of the time often shows Helios to be wearing a shining aureole, or halo, of the sun upon his head.

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. 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.

Appearance in The Odyssey Helios has a small but notable role in the Odyssey. Cult Worship The island of Rhodes, believed to have been shaped by Helios, is a place where people honored him as an important deity. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Read more on our privacy policy here. Cookie Settings Accept All.

Manage consent. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Zeus arranged for Hades, lord of the dead, to take Persephone as his wife Hades was given permission to literally "take" Persephone. Zeus, Hades, and Demeter were brothers and sister Persephone was Hades's niece. While Persephone was playing with her friends, Hades emerged from a hole in the ground and kidnapped the young goddess.

Persephone's friends did not see what had happened but the goddess Hekate heard a distant cry. Demeter began searching desperately for her daughter but was unable to find her. Finally, she encountered Hekate and was given her first clue Hekate told Demeter that she heard Persephone cry out but had seen nothing Helios knew all the facts.

Once asked, he readily told Demeter that Hades had taken Persephone with Zeus's permission, and that her daughter was now residing in the Underworld as the queen of the dead. Demeter's search was over but forcing Hades to return Persephone to the surface of the earth was not quick or easy. Using the information provided by Helios, Demeter was able to successfully negotiate the return of Persephone for a portion of each year Persephone spends winters with Hades.

In the Odyssey by Homer, the singer Demodokos tells the tale of how Aphrodite and Ares became secret lovers Hephaistos got his revenge, embarrassing Aphrodite and Ares with the other Immortals looking on. No one seemed to blame Helios for his meddling, but we might assume that all concerned learned a lesson in daytime discretion and nighttime frivolity.

Helios gave Aietes a portion of Greece near the city of Korinth called Epliyraea but Aietes abandoned Epliyraea and moved to the eastern edge of the Black Sea and became the king of Kolkhis, which was originally called Aia. King Aietes had many advantages as the son of Helios. For example, his palace was constructed by the artificer of the gods, Hephaistos, as a gesture of appreciation to Helios for his assistance during the war with the Giants.

Hephaistos was one of the Olympians who fought fiercely against the Giants but when he became faint from exhaustion and collapsed, Helios put him in his chariot and carried the debilitated god to safety. Hephaistos repaid the debt by giving divinely crafted gifts to King Aietes, including a magnificent palace.

Aietes had a reputation for being a cruel king but when a young refugee named Phrixus came to Kolkhis on a flying ram with a Golden Fleece, he welcomed the young outcast and allowed him to marry his daughter without a dowry.

Aietes realized that the Golden Fleece was of divine origin and by accepting Phrixus he gained possession of the priceless artifact. As the son of Helios, Aietes had divine favor. Hephaistos, the smith of the Immortals, built Aietes a majestic palace and in addition to the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece, Athene gave Aietes some of the magical dragons' teeth that were used to populate the city of Thebes The most frightening supernatural possession King Aietes had were fire-breathing, bronze-hoofed bulls.

When Ieson Jason and the Argonauts arrived at Kolkhis and asked Aietes for the Golden Fleece, the king pretended to be sympathetic to their quest First, Ieson would have to yoke the fire-breathing bulls and plow a field where he would then plant the dragons' teeth Aietes fully expected Ieson to fail because he did not suspect that his sorceress daughter would help Ieson. Princess Medeia was the granddaughter of Helios and a priestess of Hekate Aietes was furious when Ieson survived the ordeals with his supernatural creatures but he did not suspect his daughter of betrayal When Medeia used her magic to distract the guardian dragon while Ieson stole the Golden Fleece, Aietes clearly saw his daughters' treachery King Perses of the Taurik Khersonese was considered to be an exceedingly cruel man Perses had the distinction of being the father of the Roaring Goddess Hekate, a favorite of Zeus.

Hekate was feared and respected by all sensible men and women. She was the master of drugs and potions and passed her experimental knowledge along to the Dread Goddess Kirke Circe and the sorceress, Princess Medeia.

After a series of bloody adventures, Princess Medeia returned to her father's home only to find that Aietes had been dethroned and Perses was the new king. Medeia's son Medus killed Perses and allowed Aietes to resume as king of Kolkhis. The Dread Goddess Kirke, like her brother Aietes, had a dark side that overshadowed her divinity. Kirke lived on an island named Aiaia which was located near "the shore of the Tyrrhenian mainland" The blood guilt was on their hands and Zeus was not inclined to forgive such cowardly behavior.

The goddess Hera, in an effort to protect Ieson and Medeia from Zeus, told them to go to Kirke and ask the Dread Goddess to absolve them of their crime. The fugitive couple had little choice Kirke had been troubled with bloody nightmares that she did not understand until Ieson and Medeia arrived on her island.

She was not sure who the two strangers were but she knew they were stained with blood-guilt and seeking absolution. It wasn't until Kirke looked into Medeia's eyes that she knew the young princess was a descendant of Helios Kirke quickly surmised that the young woman standing before her was the daughter of her brother, Aietes.

Without asking for details, Kirke performed the necessary rites to cleanse Ieson and Medeia thus mitigating Zeus's wrath. Kirke bewitched several members of Odysseus's crew but with the help of the god Hermes, Odysseus was able to subdue and seduce Kirke, making her not only harmless but helpful. Kirke warned Odysseus that after leaving her island he would be tempted to land on the island of Thrinakia. She told him the island was sacred to Helios and should be avoided. The warning went unheeded.

Sailing for home after the Trojan War, Odysseus and his comrades were hoping for an uneventful voyage. A chance encounter with a Cyclops named Polyphemos forced Odysseus to blind the one-eyed brute to escape certain death.

Polyphemos was a son of Poseidon From that moment on, Odysseus's determination and resourcefulness could not save him from constant hardships and escalating sorrows. Odysseus and his crewmates were forced ashore on Thrinakia even though he had been warned by Kirke to avoid Helios's sacred island. During his glory days, Helios was much like Apollo, always chatting, joking and flirting while strolling around Olympus.

However, after being replaced by Apollo and banished to Tartarus, he became distant, angry and resentful, principally at Apollo. He also hates his granddaughter Medea, due to her bounding his will to hers. When Phaethon meets him in Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes , Helios is depicted as sitting on a throne constructed entirely from emeralds, dressed in flowing purple robes that showed off his tan, with his pupils blazed "like pilot lights for industrial ovens" and a wreath of golden laurels crowning his dark hair.

Helios possessed the standard powers of a Titan. He is equal to Selene and possibly equal to Apollo and Artemis. Hyperion, the Titan god of light and Lord of the East, is Helios's father and while their relationship with each other is unknown, it is possible that Helios cares for him. Theia, Titaness of Sight and Splendor and Hyperion's consort, is Helios's mother and though their relationship with each other is unknown, it is likely that he cares for her since she is his mother.

Phaethon was Helios's son, born to him and the Oceanid Klymene. Helios left to return to his duties shortly after Phaethon's birth so Pantheon only knew Helios's identity though his mother's stories of him. As Phaethon grew up, Prince Epaphos demanded proof from Phaethon that he was indeed the son of Helios after Phaethon boasted that his father was better. After arriving home, Phaethon wished to see Helios and was told to go to his palace in the east.

Odysseus and his surviving crew land on the island of Thrinacia, which is sacred to Helios and is where his cattle and sheep were kept. Although Odysseus warns his men not to, they ignore what Odysseus says and impiously kill and eat some of the god's cattle.

At some point, Helios seems to be riding across the sea in the cup of the Delphic tripod, which appears to be a solar reference. When Hercules was traveling to Erytheia to retrieve the cattle of Geryon he crossed the Libyan desert and was so frustrated by the heat that he shot an arrow at Helios. The sun god was so surprised by the demigod's daring that he gave Hercules the golden cup that he used to sail across the sea every night from west to east in order to reach Erytheia.

Zeus paired Aphrodite up with Hephaestus and resulted in Ares's outrage. Aphrodite then had several affairs with Ares without Hephaestus knowing. However, the all-seeing Helios took pity over him and revealed to him his wife's infidelity. Hephaestus then fashioned an unbreakable yet extremely thin golden net and ensnared the two lovers to punish them.

In The Burning Maze , Medea summons her grandfather, Helios, from the depths of Tartarus in order to absorb the combined power of Apollo and Helios and give it to Caligula to turn the emperor into the new sun god. Helios's flaming essence in the Labyrinth under southern California resulted in natural disasters, including wildfires and droughts. Helios is summoned once again by Medea to fight Apollo, Meg and Piper. Once the sorceress was defeated, the Titan went supernova. Helios encountered Apollo again when the former Olympian god is traveling the maze and Grover, searching for the Sybil.