Helios

Helios is the son of Hyperion and Theia, and the brother of Selene (the moon) and Eos (the dawn). Every morning he rises from the streams of Oceanus in the east and drives a chariot drawn by fiery horses across the sky. In the evening he sinks into the western ocean and travels back to the east on a golden cup or boat.

Because he sees everything, Helios is the witness to deeds that gods or humans would hide. In the Odyssey it is Helios who tells Zeus that Odysseus's men have killed his sacred cattle on the island of Thrinacia, and Zeus destroys their ship. In Homeric Hymn to Demeter, it is Helios who tells Demeter that Hades has taken Persephone. He was also the one who told Hephaestus about Aphrodite and Ares.

With the Oceanid Perse he had Circe and Aeetes, and with Clymene (a different Clymene) he had Phaethon, who borrowed the chariot and lost control, in the account told by Ovid; Zeus struck him down to save the world from burning.

Helios was worshipped most grandly on Rhodes, where the Colossus of Rhodes, a bronze statue some thirty metres tall, was finished in his honour around 280 BCE and counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. In later times he was identified with Apollo, and then with the Roman Sol.