The sun god in the ancient Greek mythology is Helios. According to Hesiod's "God Manual", he is the son of the Titan god Sephelion and Tea, the brother of the moon goddess Selene and the dawn goddess Eos. It is said that he rides in the sky every day on the sun chariot pulled by four fire horses, rising in the morning and disappearing in the evening from east to west, making the world bright. In later mythology, he gradually blended with the god of light Apollo. In Rome, he was called Sol.
Helios (Ancient Greek: Ἥ) λιος, English: Helios) The personification of the sun in Greek mythology, Homer often used "Ὑ π" in his Iliad ερίων” To modify or directly refer to him, sometimes also using“ Τιτάν” Refers to him. In the Odyssey, he is referred to as' Ὑπ ' εριωνίδης (The son of Hypolion) "; Hesiod called him the son of Hypolion and Tea (Euryphaesa), the brother of Selene, the goddess of the moon, and Eos, the goddess of the dawn, in his Divine Manual and Homer's Prayer to Helios. In his Metamorphosis, Ovid of Rome called him" Lumina Titan " . Mythology depicts Helios as a tall, burly, handsome and needless man. He was dressed in a purple robe and wore a golden crown of the sun that emitted countless beams of light. Every day when Eos, the goddess of the dawn, opened the gate of heaven with her rose colored fingers, Helios drove the sun chariot drawn by four flame horses and began to travel to the west until dusk fell on the other side of Oceanus. These four flame horses are: Pylos, Heros, Eton and Foergong [5]. In later myths, Helios gradually became confused with Apollo. Nevertheless, they are usually regarded as two different gods (Helios is Titan, while Apollo is Olympus, but both belong to Olympus). Helios is equivalent to Sol in Roman mythology, especially "Sol worship".
Helios is the real sun god driving a solar car. The image of Helios is a tall, tall, handsome and needless man with purple robes and shining golden crowns. He drives a sun carriage pulled by four fiery horses across the sky every day, bringing light to the world. He has many lovers and many children. One of his lovers, Clytie, has become a sunflower. He also has a famous son, Phaethon, who died because of driving a solar car. But in the late Greek mythology, the Greeks confused him with Apollo, the god of art.
Due to the long history of Greek mythology, modern people have a huge misunderstanding and cognition of the identity and status of many characters in the myth system, such as the wrong understanding of "Apollo=Apollo".
The claim that Apollo was the sun god was a huge mistake caused by some ancient Greeks' serious confusion with the gods and the addition of later poets and playwrights.
Since the fifth century BC, the sun god Helios has been seriously confused with the art god Apollo. So Apollo was considered as Helios, the sun god. But because Helios did not finally mix with Apollo, Therefore, some later non Greek writers wrote, for example, "After the Titanomachy, the god of heaven Zeus awarded the gods, and the god of light Apolloso asked for the post of director of the sun. Zeus forgot Helios on duty, and agreed to Apollo's request. There is another saying: because Phaethon, the son of the sun god Helios, caused disaster by driving a solar chariot, Zeus handed over the post of driving the solar chariot to Apollo." These 'myths'.
Of course, this is what later generations of writers said, not written by the ancient Greeks can not be regarded as Greek mythology. (Helios has been the sun god since he was born and will always be.)
Therefore, later, people often confuse Apollo with the sun god, mistaking Apollo as the sun god: -- In addition, Apollo's nickname Phoebus (meaning "light") is also believed to be the alias of Helios (but Phoebus merged with Apollo very early, and became the alias of Apollo in the 8th century BC). Later, it was used by Latin poets on top of the Roman sun god Sol. At this point, the confusion between Apollo and Helios has become increasingly widespread.
Classical Latin poets often regard "Phobos" as a replacement word for sun god (replacement word: synonym and synonym used to replace the original word to avoid a word appearing too many times in the article affecting the artistic level of the article). Since then, "Phobos and his chariot" has become a very fashionable metaphor for the sun.
It is interesting that in most deified stories, although Apollo is often referred to as "Phobos," he has never been given the title of "Son of Hyperion" or "Rider of the Solar Chariot.
Moreover, the statue of the sun god, one of the Wonders of the World of the world, worships the real sun god [Helios], not Apollo.
Because of the confusion between Apollo and Helios in later generations, everyone believed that the solar chariot was driven by Apollo, but it was not. However, it is still necessary to carefully explain why this situation occurs.
There are two versions here, which are said to come from Greek drama, because the confusion between Apollo and Helios has led to many contradictions, so we have to make up some stories to connect them, such as Helios stepping down and Apollo taking the throne, but these are just drama plots, so they are not orthodox Greek mythology. But let's take a look:
The first misconception is that after the Olympian gods defeated Titan, Zeus began to enfeoff the gods. Apollo required him to control the solar chariot while flying. At that time, Zeus forgot that he had already promised Helios, the sun god. Afterwards, although the sun god was Helios, it was Apollo who drove the solar chariot.
Another misunderstanding: in Greek mythology, Phaethon, the son of the sun god Helios, always dreamed of driving his father's solar chariot. However, he lacked the ability to control this magnificent chariot, nor could he control the galloping horses. Finally, Zeus, the father of the gods, stopped the chariot and saved the young Phaethon. At the same time, he gave Apollo the right to control the solar chariot.
So the sun god was gradually mistaken for Apollo.
But Apollo himself was also [never] lucky to drive the solar car under the pen of the ancient Greek poet. In other words, the solar car was always the patent of Helios.
The appearance of the solar chariot is that in front of it are several (approximately four) horses with golden light emanating from their entire bodies. The body is made of gold, and the horses and chariots emit golden light and heat.
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