Helius was the Titan god of the sun, a guardian of oaths, and the god of sight.

Residence: The Sky
Symbols: Sun, chariot, horse, sunflower, aureole and cockerel.
Parents: Hyperion and Theia
Siblings: Eos and Selene
Consort: Clymene, Perse and Rhode
Children: Aeetes, Circe, Perses, Pasiphae, Heliades, Heliadae, Phaethusa and Lampetia
Roman equivalent: Sol

Helius in his chariot, early 4th c. BC, Athena’s temple, Ilion.

He dwelt in a golden palace in the river Oceanus at the far ends of the earth from which he emerged each dawn, crowned with the aureole of the sun, driving a chariot drawn by four winged steeds. When he reached the the land of the Hesperides in the far West he descended into a golden cup which bore him through the northern streams of Oceanus back to his rising place in the East.

Once his son Phaethon tried to drive the chariot of the sun, but he lost control and set the earth ablaze. Zeus struck the boy down with a thunderbolt.

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Helius, god of the sun. Athenian red-figure krater, c. 5th BC. British Museum. (c) theoi.com
Roman mosaic of Helius, 3rd c. AD, from the Roman Villa of Orbe-Boscéaz. (c) theoi.com

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