In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Helios is the god who personifies the Sun, often shown with a radiant crown driving a horse-drawn chariot across the sky. A Titan's son rather than a major Olympian in Classical cult, he was nonetheless the all-seeing guardian of oaths; his worship grew especially strong on Rhodes, where the Colossus stood in his honour. His Roman counterpart is Sol.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Helios" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Solar chariot
Helios rises from Oceanus each day and drives his chariot westward across the sky; at night, poets say, he returns east in a golden cup or sleeping-bed fashioned by Hephaestus. As all-seeing witness he is invoked in oaths, and in myth he reveals Aphrodite's adultery with Ares to Hephaestus.
His horses and radiant crown became standard solar imagery. Though Classical Athens often preferred Apollo for daylight associations, Helios remained a distinct Titanic sun-god, later syncretized with Apollo and with Roman Sol.
II.Family and Phaethon
Son of Hyperion and Theia (Hesiod), Helios is brother of Selene and Eos. By the Oceanid Perse or other consorts he fathers Circe, Aeëtes, and Pasiphaë; by Clymene (in the best-known strand) he fathers Phaethon. When Phaethon insists on driving the solar chariot for a day, he loses control, scorches the earth, and is struck down by Zeus — a disaster mourned by his sisters, the Heliades, who become amber-weeping poplars.
Details of Phaethon's mother, motive, and exact kinship vary widely across authors, but the failed chariot-ride remains Helios' most famous myth.
III.Rhodes and cult
Pindar relates that Helios was absent when the gods first allotted the earth; seeing Rhodes rise from the sea, he claimed the island as his portion and swore it with Lachesis. There he was honoured above other gods; with the nymph Rhode he sired the Heliadae. The Colossus of Rhodes later embodied that civic devotion.
Other cult and literary centres include Corinthia. Odysseus' men destroy Helios' sacred cattle on Thrinacia, and Helios forces Zeus to punish them — a Homeric reminder of his jealous care for his herds.