| Helios — The Sun God of the Greeks
Greek sun god
Name: Helios
Religion: Greek Gods and Goddesses
Realms: God associated with the Sun
Family: Son of Hyperion and Theia
Fun Fact: In his honor, athletic games were held on the island of Rhodes every five years
Helios is having none of your clever words. He promises to smite you should you try that funny business on him or any of the other gods and goddesses again. In fact, if you defy him, he plans on feeding you to the dragons, which pull him around in lieu of a horse-drawn chariot.
This is also the same vessel that unfortunately killed his son Phaethon when the youngster failed to control the horses and Zeus struck him down. Zeus wasn’t being mean — had he not destroyed Phaethon, the careening solar chariot would’ve set the world on fire.
To make matters worse (or his mood, rather), Helios wasn’t widely worshiped. Other cultures put their solar deity on a pedestal. But the Greeks? It was a little beneath them; they viewed Sun worship as something the barbarian hordes did.
However, Helios, a Titan god, had a strong following and was the patron deity and city god on the island of Rhodes where his famous bronze statue guarded the harbor. The huge figure was among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World until an earthquake did away with it.
You send Helios the sun god on his way. If anything, he must be blaming the ancient Greeks for their vague sun worship and lack of scrolls — those maybe would have helped, if they clearly stated whether he did or did not own the sun.
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Apollo is the Olympian god of the sun and light, music and poetry, healing and plagues, prophecy and knowledge, order and beauty, archery and agriculture. An embodiment of the Hellenic ideal of kalokagathia, he is harmony, reason and moderation personified, a perfect blend of physical superiority and moral virtue. A complex deity who turns up in art and literature possibly as often as Zeus himself, Apollo is the only major god who appears with the same name in both Greek and Roman mythology.
The origin of the name Apollo is still not properly understood. Many Greeks seem to have supposed that it stands for “destroyer,” but this was only one of the many suggestions (“redemptory,” “purifier,” “assembler,” “stony”). Modern scholars disagree with most of them, with the majority linking Apollo’s name to the Greek word apella which means “a sheepfold,” and which may suggest that Apollo was originally merely a protector of the flocks and herds.
However, in time, he evolved to become a multifaceted god adored all over Greece as the perfectly developed classical male nude, the kouros. Beardless and athletically built, he is often depicted with a laurel crown on his head and either a bow and arrow or a lyre and plectrum in his hands. The sacrificial tripod – representing his prophetic powers – was another common attribute of Apollo, just as few animals linked with the god in various myths: wolf, dolphin, python, mouse, deer, swan.
Apollo was in charge of so many things that, naturally, even his more famous epithets are numerous. As a sun god, he was called “Phoebus,” or “bright.” As a prophet, the Greeks called him “Loxias,” or “The One Who Speaks Crookedly.” As the god of music, he was known as the “Leader of the Muses.” Finally, the places of Apollo’s birth and worship adorned him with three other appellations: “Delian,” “Delphic,” and “Pythian.”
Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto. As one of the numerous Zeus’s lovers, his mother incurred the wrath of Hera, who sent the dragon Python to pursue Leto throughout all lands and forbade her to give birth anywhere on solid earth. Nobody would accept the pregnant Titaness, except for the island of Delos, where Leto first delivered Artemis while balancing her body on an olive branch. Afterward, Artemis helped her mother deliver Apollo as well.
Fed exclusively with nectar and ambrosia, in merely four days Apollo grew strong and hungry for revenge. So, he went straight away to Parnassus where Python lived, and wounded the monster with his arrows. Python managed to escape and shelter itself at Gaea’s ancient sanctuary in Delphi. Apollo was so enraged that he dared to violate the sanctity of the site by staining it with Python’s blood. Zeus ordered Apollo to cleanse himself, after which he returned to Delphi and claimed the shrine to his name.
After these events, Delos and Delphi became sacred sites for the worship of Zeus, Leto, Artemis, and, especially, Apollo. The high priestess Pythia presided over the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, serving as its enigmatic oracle.
The day he was born, Hermes invented the lyre and stole Apollo’s cattle. So as to appease his older brother after he found out what happened, Hermes offered Apollo his new invention. Ever since then, the lyre became one of Apollo’s most famous attributes, and its most celebrated master.
However, Apollo’s virtuosity would be challenged on at least three different occasions. The first one to dare do such a thing was the least fortunate one, the satyr Marsyas. He wasn’t bad at all playing the aulos (the double flute), even equaling Apollo’s skill. However, he ultimately lost the contest, since, unlike Apollo, he couldn’t sing while playing. As punishment, Marsyas was hanged inside a cave and was subsequently flayed alive.
Source: https://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Apollo/apollo.html |
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