Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Helios
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Identification with other gods == === Apollo === [[File:Mengs, Helios als Personifikation des Mittages.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''Helios as the personification of midday'', [[rococo]] painting by [[Anton Raphael Mengs]] ({{circa|1765}}) showing [[apollo]]nian traits, such as the lack of a chariot, that were absent in mythology and Hellenic art.]] Helios is sometimes identified with [[Apollo]]: "Different names may refer to the same being," Walter Burkert argues, "or else they may be consciously equated, as in the case of Apollo and Helios."<ref>Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', p. 120.</ref> Apollo was associated with the Sun as early as the fifth century BC, though widespread conflation between him and the Sun god was a later phaenomenon.<ref name=":lar07">Larson 2007, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=A01-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 158]</ref> The earliest certain reference to Apollo being identified with Helios appears in the surviving fragments of Euripides' play ''Phaethon'' in a speech near the end.<ref name=":frag">[[Euripides]], ''[[Phaethon (play)|Phaethon]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.353.xml fr. 781 Collard and Cropp] = fr. 781 N<sup>2</sup>.</ref> By [[Hellenistic]] times Apollo had become closely connected with the Sun in [[Cult (religion)|cult]] and [[Phoebus]] (Greek Φοῖβος, "bright"), the epithet most commonly given to Apollo, was later applied by [[Latin]] poets to the Sun-god Sol. The identification became a commonplace in philosophic and some Orphic texts. [[Pseudo-Eratosthenes]] writes about [[Orpheus]] in ''[[Catasterismi|Placings Among the Stars]]'', 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 [[Bassarids|Bassarides]], as [[Aeschylus]] the tragedian says; they tore him apart and scattered the limbs.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Iliad of Homer | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BT0uAQAAIAAJ | publisher=Ashmead | author=Homer, William Cullen Bryant | year=1809 }}</ref> Dionysus and Asclepius are sometimes also identified with this Apollo Helios.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=oE8vW4BX9kwC G. Lancellotti, ''Attis, Between Myth and History: King, Priest, and God'', BRILL, 2002]</ref><ref>Guthrie, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA43 43], says "The Orphics never had the power to bring it about, but it was their purpose to foster it, and in their syncretistic literature they identified the two gods [i.e. Apollo and Dionysus] by giving out that both alike were Helios, the Sun. Helios = supreme god = Dionysus = Apollo (cp. Kern, ''Orpheus'', 7). So at least the later writers say. [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodoros]] (''O.F''. 212) speaks of 'Helios, who according to Orpheus has much in common with Dionysos through the medium of Apollo', and according to [[Proclus|Proklos]] (''O.F''. 172) 'Orpheus makes Helios very much the same as Apollo, and worship the fellowship of these gods'. Helios and Dionysos are identified in Orphic lines (''O.F''. 236, 239)."</ref> [[File:Wall painting - Dionysos with Helios and Aphrodite - Pompeii (VII 2 16) - Napoli MAN 9449 - 02.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|A wall painting in [[Pompeii]] depicting Apollo. Before 79 AD]] [[Strabo]] wrote that [[Artemis]] and Apollo were associated with Selene and Helios respectively due to the changes those two celestial bodies caused in the temperature of the air, as the twins were gods of pestilential diseases and sudden deaths.<ref>[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+14.1.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 14.1.6]</ref> [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] also linked Apollo's association with Helios as a result of his profession as a healing god.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+7.23.8&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 7.23.8]</ref> In the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'', Helios is addressed as [[Paean]] ("healer") and holding a golden lyre,<ref name=":oh8">''[[Orphic Hymn]] 8 to the Sun'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=iaEIvzlc41QC&pg=PA8 9–15] (Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 11).</ref><ref name=":barry"/> both common descriptions for Apollo; similarly Apollo in his own hymn is described as Titan and shedding light to the mortals, both common epithets of Helios.<ref>''[[Orphic Hymn]] 34 to [[Apollo]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=TTo3r8IHy0wC&pg=PA30 3 and 8] (Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp 30–31).</ref> According to Athenaeus, [[Telesilla]] wrote that the song sung in honour of Apollo is called the "Sun-loving song" ({{lang|grc|{{math|φιληλιάς}} }}, ''philhēliás''),<ref>[[Athenaeus]], ''[[Deipnosophistae|Scholars at Dinner]]'' [http://www.attalus.org/old/athenaeus14a.html#619 14.10]</ref> that is, a song meant to make the Sun come forth from the clouds, sung by children in bad weather; but [[Julius Pollux]] describing a ''philhelias'' in greater detail makes no mention of Apollo, only Helios.<ref name=":farn137">Farnell, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2NQF-MSICWEC&pg=PA137 137], vol. IV</ref> [[Scythinus of Teos]] wrote that Apollo uses the bright light of the Sun (''{{lang|grc|λαμπρὸν πλῆκτρον ἡλίου φάος}}'') as his harp-quill<ref>[[:el:Σκυθίνος|Scythinus]] fragment [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/scythinus-fragment/1999/pb_LCL259.523.xml here] in [[Plutarch]]'s ''[[Moralia|De Pythiae Oraculis]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0248%3Asection%3D16 16.402a]</ref> and in a fragment of [[Timotheus of Miletus|Timotheus]]' lyric, Helios is invoked as an archer with the invocation ''{{lang|grc|{{math|Ἰὲ Παιάν}} }}'' (a common way of addressing the two medicine gods), though it most likely was part of esoteric doctrine, rather than a popular and widespread belief.<ref name=":farn137"/> [[File:Karl Bryullov - Phoebus Driving his chariot.jpg|thumb|right|240px|''Phoebus Driving his Chariot'' by [[Karl Bryullov]], [[oil on canvas]], 19th century.]] 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 chariot as a metaphor for the Sun.<ref>{{cite book | title=Petrarch's genius: pentimento and prophecy | publisher=University of California press | author=O'Rourke Boyle Marjorie | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-520-07293-0}}</ref> Ancient Roman authors who used "Phoebus" for Sol as well as Apollo include Ovid,<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/141#7.357 7.367]</ref> [[Virgil]],<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/245#4.1 4.6]</ref> [[Statius]],<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/StatiusThebaidVIII.php#anchor_Toc342643147 8.271]</ref> and [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]].<ref>[[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], ''[[Hercules (Seneca)|Hercules Furens]]'' [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3ATragedies_of_Seneca_(1907)_Miller.djvu/137 25]</ref> Representations of Apollo with solar rays around his head in art also belong to the time of the [[Roman Empire]], particularly under Emperor [[Elagabalus]] in 218-222 AD.<ref name=":mayr">Mayerson, p. [https://archive.org/details/classicalmytholo0000maye_g5u7/page/146/mode/2up?view=theater 146]</ref> === Usil === [[File:M-Nymphenburg-SteinernerSaal03.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Helios in the Sun chariot accompanied by Phosphorus and Hermes, fresco at Nymphenburg Palace, [[Munich]].]] The Etruscan god of the Sun was [[Usil]]. His name appears on the bronze [[liver of Piacenza]], next to ''Tiur'', the Moon.<ref>Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, ''Etruscan Myths'' (Series The Legendary Past, British Museum/University of Texas) 2006:77.</ref> He appears, rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscan [[bronze mirror]] in late Archaic style.<ref>Noted by {{cite journal |first=J.D. |last=Beazley |title=The world of the Etruscan mirror |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=69 |year=1949 |pages=1–17, esp. p. 3, fig. 1|doi=10.2307/629458 |jstor=629458 |s2cid=163737209 }}</ref> On Etruscan mirrors in Classical style, he appears with a [[Halo (religious iconography)|halo]]. In ancient artwork, [[Usil]] is shown in close association with [[Thesan]], the goddess of the dawn, something almost never seen with Helios and Eos,<ref>{{cite book |first1=Nancy Thomson |last1=de Grummond |first2=Erika |last2=Simon |title=The Religion of the Etruscans |publisher=University of Texas Press |date=2009-04-20}}</ref> however in the area between [[Cetona]] and [[Chiusi]] a stone [[obelisk]] is found, whose relief decorations seem to have been interpreted as referring to a solar sanctuary: what appears to be a Sun boat, the heads of Helios and Thesan, and a [[rooster|cock]], likewise referring to the Sunrise.<ref>Fischer-Hansen and Poulsen, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2garBSREfywC&pg=PA281 281]</ref> === Zeus === [[File:Serapis.JPG|thumb|250px|left|Serapis with Moon and Sun, oil lamp, Roman [[terracotta]], [[British Museum]].]] Helios is also sometimes conflated in classical literature with the highest Olympian god, Zeus. An attested cult epithet of Zeus is ''Aleios Zeus'', or "Zeus the Sun," from the Doric form of Helios' name.<ref>[https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/alpha/1155 "Aleion."] [[Suda]] On Line. Trans. Jennifer Benedict on 17 April 2000.</ref> The inscribed base of Mammia's dedication to Helios and Zeus Meilichios, dating from the fourth or third century BC, is a fairly and unusually early evidence of the conjoint worship of Helios and Zeus.<ref>Lalonde, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EodSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 82]</ref> According to [[Plutarch]], Helios is Zeus in his material form that one can interact with, and that's why Zeus owns the year,<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''[[Moralia|Quaestiones Romanae]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/D.html#77 Why do they believe that the year belongs to Jupiter, but the months to Juno?]</ref> while the [[Greek chorus|chorus]] in Euripides' ''Medea'' also link him to Zeus when they refer to Helios as "light born from Zeus".<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0114%3Acard%3D1251 1258]; ''The Play of Texts and Fragments: Essays in Honour of Martin Cropp'' by J. Robert C. Cousland, James, 2009, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=hcW-i_nrpWEC&pg=PA161 161]</ref> In his ''Orphic Hymn'', Helios is addressed as "immortal Zeus".<ref name=":oh8"/> In [[Crete]], the cult of Zeus [[Talos|Tallaios]] had incorporated several solar elements into his worship; "Talos" was the local equivalent of Helios.<ref name=":kk">Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks 1951:110.</ref> Helios is referred either directly as Zeus' eye,<ref>Sick, David H. (2004) "Mit(h)ra(s) and the myths of the Sun", ''Numen'', 51 (4): 432–467, {{JSTOR|3270454}}</ref> or clearly implied to be. For instance, Hesiod effectively describes Zeus's eye as the Sun.<ref>Bortolani, Ljuba Merlina (2016-10-13) ''Magical Hymns from Roman Egypt: A study of Greek and Egyptian traditions of divinity'', Cambridge University Press.</ref> 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 [[Dyeus|*''Dyḗus Pḥ<sub>a</sub>tḗr'']] (see [[Hvare-khshaeta]]). An [[Orphic]] saying, supposedly given by an oracle of Apollo, goes: : "Zeus, Hades, Helios-Dionysus, three gods in one godhead!" The Hellenistic period gave birth to Serapis, a Greco-Egyptian deity conceived by the Greeks as a chthonic aspect of Zeus, whose solar nature is indicated by the Sun crown and rays the Greeks depicted him with.<ref name=":co188">Cook, pp [https://archive.org/details/zeusstudyinancie01cookuoft/page/188/mode/2up?view=theater 188–189]</ref> Frequent joint dedications to "Zeus-Serapis-Helios" have been found all over the Mediterranean.<ref name=":co188" /><ref>Cook, p. [https://archive.org/details/zeusstudyinancie01cookuoft/page/190/mode/2up?view=theater 190]</ref><ref>Cook, p. [https://archive.org/details/zeusstudyinancie01cookuoft/page/192/mode/2up?view=theater 193]</ref><ref>Manoledakis, Manolis. "A Proposal Relating to a Votive Inscription to Zeus Helios from Pontus." Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 173 (2010): [http://www.jstor.org/stable/20756841. 116–18.]</ref><ref>Elmaghrabi, Mohamed G. "A Dedication to Zeus Helios Megas Sarapis on a 'Gazophylakion' from Alexandria." Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 200 (2016): [http://www.jstor.org/stable/26603880. 219–28.]</ref> There is evidence of Zeus being worshipped as a solar god in the Aegean island of [[Amorgos]] which, if correct, could mean that Sun elements in Zeus' worship could be as early as the fifth century BC.<ref>Cook, p. [https://archive.org/details/zeusstudyinancie01cookuoft/page/194/mode/2up?view=theater 194]</ref> [[File:INC-3011-r Ауреус. Адриан. Ок. 117 г. (реверс).png|thumb|220px|Helios on a golden coin from 117 AD.]] === Hades === Helios seems to have been connected to some degree with Hades, the god of the Underworld. A dedicatory inscription from [[Smyrna]] describes a 1st–2nd century sanctuary to "God Himself" as the most exalted of a group of six deities, including clothed statues of ''Plouton Helios'' and ''Koure Selene'', or in other words "[[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]] the Sun" and "[[Persephone|Kore]] the Moon".<ref>Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," pp. 101ff</ref> Roman poet [[Apuleius]] describes a rite in which the Sun appears at midnight to the initiate at the gates of [[Proserpina]]; the suggestion here is that this midnight Sun could be ''Plouton Helios''.<ref>Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," pp. 111.</ref> Pluto-Helios seems to reflect the Egyptian idea of the nocturnal Sun that penetrated the realm of the dead.<ref>Nilsson 1906, p. [https://archive.org/details/griechischefest01nilsgoog/page/428/mode/2up?view=theater 428]</ref> An old oracle from [[Claros]] said that the names of Zeus, Hades, Helios, Dionysus and ''Jao'' all represented the Sun at different seasons.<ref>Inman, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HIEBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA29 29]</ref> [[Macrobius]] wrote that Iao/Jao is "Hades in winter, Zeus in spring, Helios in summer, and Iao in autumn."<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturnalia'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html#18.19 1.18.19]; Dillon, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=UAcqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA343 343]</ref> === Cronus === Diodorus Siculus reported that the Chaldeans called Cronus ([[Saturn (mythology)|Saturnus]]) by the name Helios, or the Sun, and he explained that this was because [[Saturn]] was the "most conspicuous" of the planets.<ref>"epiphanestaton" – "most conspicuous" noted in [[Diodorus Siculus]] II. 30. 3–4. See also Franz Boll (1919) Kronos-Helios, ''Archiv für Religionswissenschaft'' XIX, p. 344.</ref> === Mithras === Helios is frequently conflated with Mithras in iconography, as well as being worshipped alongside him as Helios-Mithras.<ref name="julian_works" /> The earliest artistic representations of the "chariot god" come from the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian period]] (3rd century) in [[Persia]] where there is evidence of rituals being performed for the sun god by [[Magi]], indicating an assimilation of the worship of Helios and [[Mithras]].<ref name="Pachoumi" />
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)