![]() ![]() At the time of the First Titanomachy, when the gods were dividing the world by lot, Helios happened to be absent because of his duties, and consequently received no share. Helios's primary place of worship was the island of Rhodes, which according to the following myth was his special territory. Hercules successfully retrieved the cattle and after he returned to Greece, he gave the cup back to 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. 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. At the hour of sunset, Helios climbed into a great golden cup in which he passes from the Hesperides in the farthest west to the land of Aethipoia, with whom he passes the dark hours. ![]() In one Greek vase painting, Helios appears riding across the sea in the cup of the Delphic tripod, which appears to be a solar reference. Helios’ daughters, Phaëthusa and Lampetië, who guard the island, tell their father, and Helios then appeals to Zeus, who destroys Odysseus' ship and kills all of the men except for Odysseus. ![]() ![]() Though Odysseus warns his men not to, they impiously kill and eat some of the sun god's cattle. In Book XII of Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus and his surviving crew land on the island of Thrinacia (considered to be Sicily), which is sacred to Helios and is where his cattle and sheep were kept. 300 ff), Aphrodite, the wife of Hephaestus, secretly bedded Ares, although the all-seeing Helios took pity on Hephaestus and revealed Aphrodite's promiscuity to the latter, leading the devastated blacksmith god to ensnare the two lovers in a net to punish them. As is recounted in Homer's Odyssey ( Book VIII. Helios was often referred to as Helios Panoptes (" the all-seeing"). After his death, the boy was either placed among the stars as the constellation Auriga ("the charioteer") or he became one of the five gods of the wandering stars (the planet Jupiter or Saturn). His sisters, the Heliades, gathered on the banks of the river to mourn their brother's demise and are transformed into amber-teared poplar trees. Phaethon's flaming body was hurled from the sky and right into the river Eridanos. Zeus, appalled by the destruction, blasted the youth out of the chariot with one of his lightning bolts. Helios agreed, albeit reluctantly, and granted the wish of his son who soon after lost control over the immortal horses and set the earth ablaze, scorching the African plains to desert and freezing the North to snowy areas. The best known story involving Helios is that of his son Phaethon, who begged his father to let him drive the sun chariot. Helios is the son of Hyperion, lord of the east, and his wife Theia, goddess of sight and splendor he had two siblings, Selene, the moon and Eos, the dawn. ![]()
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