"Through them all [the constellations of the zodiac] Helios passes in yearly course, as he drives his mighty furrow, and now to one, now to another he draws near, now as he rises and anon as he sets."
Aratus, Phaenomena 748
🏛 #Helios statuette, Antalya Archaeological Museum
"As he rides his chariot, he shines upon men and deathless gods. Bright rays beam dazzlingly from him, and his bright locks streaming from the temples of his head gracefully enclose his far-seen face: a rich, fine-spun garment glows upon his body and flutters in the wind: and stallions carry him."
Homeric Hymn 31 to #Helios
"When he [Helios] has stayed his golden-yoked chariot and horses, he rests there upon the highest point of heaven, until he marvellously drives them down again through heaven to Okeanos."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.397
🏛 Helios, silver-gilt disc. Foundin Elis, Greece, and dated 5th to 2nd century BCE. Today in the British Museum.
"Sol meanwhile, dishevelled, his bright sheen subdued as in the gloom of an eclipse, loathing himself, loathing the light, the day, gives way to grief, and, grief rising to rage, denies his duty to the world."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.397
🏛 Phaethon Sarcophagus, detail of Helios, 3rd century CE, #Verona, Museum-Lapidarium of Maffei
One of the oldest antiquities found at Aï Khanum, this spectacular disk depicts #Kybele and winged #Nike on a chariot drawn by two lions through a mountainous landscape with a bust of the sun god Helios in the sky.
🏛 Ceremonial Plaque depicting Kybele, Nike, and Helios. Early 3rd century BCE. Today in the National Museum of #Afghanistan, Kabul.
"From Okeanos upsprings Helios in glory, flashing fire far over earth - fire, when beside his radiant chariot-team races the red star Seirios, scatterer of woefullest diseases over men."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 8.30
🏛 Roman oil lamp decorated with the image of Helios-Sol, from the cemetery of Fragonisi near #Olympia. 2nd to 3rd century CE.
"Grant, oh, grant that I ride through the air in my father's car; give me the reins, O sire, give me the right to guide your fire-bearing steeds with the flaming reins; then let Corinth [...] be consumed by flames and bring the two seas together."
Seneca, Medea 28
🏛 Helios-Sol, Roman marble decoration, 3rd century CE, Terme di Diocleziano, #Rome
King Minos of #Crete was married to Pasiphaë, daughter of #Helios, the Sun. After he had been unfaithful several times, she cursed #Minos so he couldn't have sex with mortal women because he would ejaculate snakes, scorpions, and millipedes. As a goddess, #Pasiphaë herself remained unbothered when she slept with her husband. The Athenian girl Prokris overcame the spell by essentially inventing the #condom in the form of a goat's bladder.
Meet this Roman gold and silver finger ring depicting the sun god Sol-Helios!
The relief shows the face of Helios in silver on a golden background. His seven-spiked sun-ray crown is also golden.
Meet this spectacular statue of #Helios that was part of the ancient marine cargo of a merchant ship that sank during the Late Roman period (400 CE): the statues look as though they were cast yesterday rather than 1,600 years ago!
🏛 Figurine of the sun god #Sol-Helios, found in the port of Caesarea, Israel.
#Selene driving her moon chariot, here shown as a team of four horses. She has a shining aureola around her head and the reins and her riding crop in hand. She is followed by her brother #Helios, the fish around them suggesting that one is descending and the other rising.
🏛️ Canosa, Italy, ca. 330 – 310 BCE; now at Munich, Antikensammlung
In #Greek#mythology, Clytie¹ was an Oceanid nymph, lover of #Helios.
Since he cheated her with another woman, Leucothoe, Clytie revealed the affair to the other girl's father, who… buried her alive (that escalated quickly!).
Since Clytie intended to win Helios back, but he avoided her after what had happened, she fell in despair. She sat naked, accepting no food or drinks, for nine days.
Eventually, she turned into a purple flower, the heliotrope, "which turns its head always to look longingly at Helios the Sun as he passes through the sky in his solar chariot, even though he no longer cares for her, her form much changed, her love for him unchanged."
That was the story by Ovid; the heliotrope then became the sunflower.
On holiday, in Puymartin Castle² in #France, I found this paining based on a drawing by Pierre Brebiette.
You can see that later, in the 19th century, clothes were added to cover her body – and ruin the piece of art.
Also, Helios's chariot was covered by the #sun.
Engraved Stone Ball (Magic Sphere?) with #Helios and magical symbols. Discovered in 1866 at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, near the remains of the Theatre of Dionysos.
🎨 Marble sphere, dated 2nd-3rd centuries CE. Today in the #Athens Acropolis Museum.
Mosaic of #Helios, #Selene and the 12 labours of the months. The Sun and the Moon are in the centre with the 12 labours arranged around them. Each of the labourers is labelled at the feet with the number of days as well as the Latin name of the month in Greek letters.
🏛️ Roman era #mosaic dated 6th century CE, Beit She'an, Israel
"Phaethon [#Helios] laughed, because #Ares in the seafight of [#Dionysos against the Indians] had fled again before the fire of #Hephaistos, as once before he fled from his chains."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 39.403
🎨 Helios (possibly Alexander of Macedon) bronze bust, 1st century CE.
"We came soon enough to the lovely island of #Helios. Here were the fine broad-browed herds, here were the plentiful fat flocks of Hyperion [Helios]."
Homer, Odyssey 12. 261
🎨 Helios and #Odysseus depicted on an oil lamp, Antikensammlung #Munich
"She [Gaia] prayed to the Titan #Helios with submissive voice: she begged of him one red hot ray, that with its heating fire she might melt the petrified water of Zeus, by pouring his kindred radiance over frozen Typhon."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 543
🎨 Roman silver relief of Sol from Pessinus in Anatolia, dated 3rd century CE. Today in the British Museum.
"Helios, the myth tells us [...] caused the water which had overflowed it [the island of Rhodes] to disappear. But the true explanation is that [...] the island was still like mud and soft, Helios dried up the larger part of its wetness and filled the land with living creatures."
🎨 Red-figure vase painting of #Helios in a chariot drawn by two #Erotes.
"Helios (the Sun), who is watchman of both gods and men [...] You [Helios] with your beams look down from the bright upper air (aitheros) over all the earth and sea."
Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter
🪷 28 July is Pythia day, honoring the Oracle of #Delphi which #Antinous saw in 128 AD. He probably looked similar to this #Apollo-#Helios figure by #FredericLeighton. Today is a good day to try scrying and light incense in memory of the women who were #Delphic priestesses. 🪷