Editing Helios (section)

== Origins ==
[[File:Mack, Ludwig (der Jüngere), Helios-Relief, mitte.jpg|thumb|upright=1.62|Helios relief (1830), [[Stuttgart]], [[Rosenstein Castle]].]]

Helios most likely is Proto-Indo-European in origin. [[Walter Burkert]] wrote that "... Helios, the sun god, and [[Eos]]-[[Aurora (mythology)|Aurora]], the [[Dawn deities|goddess of the dawn]], are of impeccable Indo-European lineage both in etymology and in their status as gods" and might have played a role in Proto-Indo-European poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxurBtx6shoC&pg=PA17 |title=Greek Religion |date=1985 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-36281-9 |language=en}}</ref> The imagery surrounding a chariot-driving solar deity is likely [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] in origin.<ref name=Pachoumi/><ref>Gelling, P. and Davidson, H.E. ''The Chariot of the Sun and Other Rites and Symbols of the Northern Bronze Age''. London, 1969.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gamkrelidze |first1=Thomas V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2aqp2n2mKkC&pg=PA634 |title=Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture. Part I: The Text. Part II: Bibliography, Indexes |last2=Ivanov |first2=Vjaceslav V. |date=2010-12-15 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-081503-0 |language=en}}</ref> Greek solar imagery begins with the gods Helios and Eos, who are brother and sister, and who become in the day-and-night-cycle the day (''hemera'') and the evening (''hespera''), as Eos accompanies Helios in his journey across the skies. At night, he pastures his steeds and travels east in a golden boat. In them evident is the Indo-European grouping of a sun god and his sister, as well as an association with horses.<ref name=":adms">{{Cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J. P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&pg=PA164 |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture |last2=Adams |first2=Douglas Q. |date=1997 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-884964-98-5 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Helen of Troy|Helen of Troy's]] name is thought to share the same etymology as Helios,<ref>Euripides, Robert E. Meagher, ''Helen'', Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1986</ref><ref>O'Brien, Steven. "Dioscuric Elements in Celtic and Germanic Mythology". ''Journal of Indo-European Studies'' 10:1 & 2 (Spring–Summer, 1982), 117–136.</ref><ref>Skutsch, Otto. "Helen, her Name and Nature". ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 107 (1987), 188–193.</ref> and she may express an early alternate personification of the sun among Hellenic peoples. Helen might have originally been considered to be a daughter of the Sun, as she hatched from an [[egg]] and was given tree worship, features associated with the Proto-Indo-European Sun Maiden;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Larson |first=Jennifer Lynn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fasGIzLTlBEC&pg=PA66 |title=Greek Heroine Cults |date=1995 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-14370-1 |language=en}}</ref>  in surviving Greek tradition however Helen is never said to be Helios' daughter, instead being the daughter of [[Zeus]].<ref name=":west">{{Cite book |last=West |first=M. L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA230 |title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth |date=2007-05-24 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-928075-9 |language=en}}</ref>

It has been suggested that the [[Phoenicians]] brought over the cult of their patron god [[Baal]] among others (such as [[Astarte]]) to [[Corinth]], who was then continued to be worshipped under the native name/god Helios, similarly to how Astarte was worshipped as [[Aphrodite]], and the Phoenician [[Melqart]] was adopted as the [[List of water deities|sea-god]] [[Melicertes]]/[[Palaemon (Greek mythology)|Palaemon]], who also had a significant cult in the [[isthmus of Corinth]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/makersofhellascr00geej/mode/2up|pages=[https://archive.org/details/makersofhellascr00geej/page/n95/mode/2up? 138–139]|title=The Makers of Hellas|publisher=C. Griffin, Limited |last1=Jevons |first1=Frank Byron|year=1903}}</ref>

Helios' journey on a chariot during the day and travel with a boat in the ocean at night possibly reflects the [[Egypt]]ian sun god [[Ra]] sailing across the skies in a [[Solar barque|barque]] to be reborn at dawn each morning anew; additionally, both gods, being associated with the sun, were seen as the "Eye of Heaven".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kilinski |first=Karl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qZLGqoAkvQC&pg=PA10 |title=Greek Myth and Western Art: The Presence of the Past |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-01332-2 |language=en}}</ref>