Second-generation Titan god of the Sun, son of Hyperion and Theia, whose all-seeing course crosses heaven each day; the slaughter of his sacred cattle destroys Odysseus' crew.1
Theia bore great Helios to Hyperion beside Selene and Eos. Homer gives his sight unmatched reach: not even Zeus and Hera hidden in a golden cloud would escape Helios, whose vision is keenest of all. Pseudo-Apollodorus keeps him in the same family as the Sun born to Hyperion and Thia; Hyginus names Aethra as mother instead.2⚖
On Thrinacia he kept seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep, fifty in each, deathless and without offspring, guarded by his daughters Phaethusa and Lampetie. Though Odysseus warned his crew, hunger drove them to kill the cattle while he slept. Lampetie carried the news to her father, and Helios demanded vengeance from Zeus, threatening to shine among the dead if the outrage went unpaid.3
Zeus answered the demand. After the crew had feasted for six days, their ship returned to sea and Zeus shattered it with a flaming thunderbolt. Every companion of Odysseus perished, fulfilling the poem's opening charge that they destroyed their own homecoming by devouring the cattle of Helios Hyperion.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
