Helios. Helios, also Helius, in Ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god and personification of the Sun, often depicted in art with a radiant crown and driving a horse-drawn chariot through the sky.
Though Helios was a relatively minor deity in Classical Greece, his worship grew more prominent in late antiquity thanks to his identification with several major solar divinities of the Roman period, particularly Apollo and Sol. The Roman Emperor Julian made Helios the central divinity of his short-lived revival of traditional Roman religious practices in the 4th century AD. Helios figures prominently in several works of Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, in which he is often described as the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and brother of the goddesses Selene and Eos.
The name Helen is thought to share this etymology, and may express an early alternate personification of the sun among Hellenic peoples. 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. Among these is Hyperion, Elektor, Phaeton the radiant, Terpsimbrotos, and Hekatos.
Helios is usually depicted as a handsome young man 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-
Though Helios was a relatively minor deity in Classical Greece, his worship grew more prominent in late antiquity thanks to his identification with several major solar divinities of the Roman period, particularly Apollo and Sol. The Roman Emperor Julian made Helios the central divinity of his short-lived revival of traditional Roman religious practices in the 4th century AD. Helios figures prominently in several works of Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, in which he is often described as the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and brother of the goddesses Selene and Eos.
The name Helen is thought to share this etymology, and may express an early alternate personification of the sun among Hellenic peoples. 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. Among these is Hyperion, Elektor, Phaeton the radiant, Terpsimbrotos, and Hekatos.
Helios is usually depicted as a handsome young man 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-
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