Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Helios.
The gallery
Helios and Phaeton with Saturn and the Four Seasons
Nicolas Poussin, c. 1635
Poussin seats Helios in the solar chariot while young Phaethon begs the reins — the sun god's fatal gift framed by Saturn and the Seasons. Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.
Helios as the Personification of Midday
Anton Raphael Mengs, c. 1765
Mengs paints Helios as Noon for Maria Luisa of Parma's boudoir cycle of the times of day — radiant crown and classical body making the Titan sun into Enlightenment allegory.
Helios on His Chariot
Hans Adam Weissenkircher, 1685
Weissenkircher's Baroque detail shows Helios driving the four-horse solar team across the sky — the daily circuit of the sun god as ceiling splendour.
The Colossus of Rhodes
Louis de Caullery, before 1622
Caullery imagines the lost bronze wonder: Helios as harbour giant bestriding Rhodes, ships passing at his feet — the sun god made the measure of ancient scale. Louvre, Paris (MNR 727).
Helios Rising in His Quadriga (Attic lekythos)
Sappho Painter, c. 500 BC
On this black-figure lekythos Helios rises in his four-horse chariot while Nyx and Eos drive away — the sun god's daily birth painted for an Attic grave. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
In play
Colossus of Rhodes
The lost bronze wonder of the ancient world was a colossal Helios — the sun god as harbour guardian, and still the image that makes his name monumental.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Rick Riordan
Riordan's demigod series keeps Helios among the fading Titan-era suns — the chariot of day as a power the modern gods have partly replaced.