Now as some of my readers may know, but many may not, Hyperion was the first Greek deity associated with the sun. Hyperion was one of the original twelve Titans, and Helios his son. In later Ancient Greek literature, Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios; the former was ascribed the characteristics of the 'God of Watchfulness and Wisdom', while the latter became the physical incarnation of the Sun. Hyperion plays virtually no role in Greek culture and little role in mythology, save in lists of the twelve Titans.
And so it was, that Helios then inherited the great ball of fire from his father and became the complete personification of the fiery orb. Helios is often depicted as fiercely handsome with a bright halo of sorts encircling his head. At a certain point Apollo is also associated with the Sun and as being the God of Light, and so I will present him next week.
But for now, I present... Helios
I always learn something interesting when I come here Chris. This was great.
ReplyDelete.......dhole
Thanks for stopping by Donna!!
DeleteI was just watching the 1969 film of Medea (on youtube with subtitles) which features Maria Callas in the starring role. It's great and there's a lot of her communing with Helios (her grandfather if you recall). In a strange stroke of serendipity I just put up a blog post about the moment when Medea shifts into goddess mode and it has the clip where Helios appears to her. So there you go! It's quite a powerful moment (about 4-5 mins into the clip)
ReplyDeletehey Meg, I just watched the clip. Powerful!! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteHi Chris, I'm stopping by from the campaign trail. Nice to meet you. :)
ReplyDelete*waves* Nice to meet you too!
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