Helios uncovered her promptly and tried resuscitating her with the warmth of his rays, but it was too little too late: Leucothoe was dead forevermore. The king would listen to no excuses: he buried her daughter alive in the cold earth as soon as he found her. Wanting Helios all for herself and being unable to bear the pain of his newest affair, Clytie spread around the story of someone secretly defiling Leucothoe until it reached the ears of Orchamus. Enraptured with Leucothoe’s beauty, Helios disguised himself as her mother and gained entrance to her room, after which he changed his form back to his customary beauty which left Leucothoe speechless and presently inspired her love. Such was the case when he spotted the affair of Aphrodite with Ares, the disclosing of which led to the humiliation of both deities.Īphrodite decided to take revenge, so she made Helios (who was, at the time, happily consorting Clytie) fall madly in love with Leucothoe, the daughter of the Persian king Orchamus and Eurynome. Journeying through the sky from sunrise to sunset on a daily basis, Helios could see and hear everything happening during most of the day naturally, sometimes, this meant that he was able to notice things others would rather keep as topmost secrets. The Heliadae surpassed all men in both strength and learning (especially, astrology) and, soon enough, they came to rule Rhodes, whose three chief cities (Ialysos, Cameiros, and Lindos) are named after some of their sons to this very day. Soon after, the Sun God lay with Rhode, who bore him seven sons, the Heliadae, and a daughter, Electryone. Rhode was the nymph of the island of Rhodes, which Helios claimed as his own even before it had been created, being the first one to see it rising magnificently from the sea. Phaethon’s sisters, the Heliades, grieved his death of their brother for so long that, eventually, their tears turned into amber and they themselves into poplar trees. Once, after being granted permission by Helios to borrow his chariot for a day, the inexperienced Phaethon sped it out of control and had to be killed with a thunderbolt by Zeus, lest he should set fire to the entire earth. Possibly the most famous mistress of Helios was the Oceanid Clymene, with whom he had three (or, some say, five) daughters known collectively as the Heliades, and a son by the name of Phaethon. PerseĪccording to most accounts, Helios was married to the Oceanid Perse (or Perseis) with whom he had at least four children: Aeetes and Perses, both kings of Colchis at different times Pasiphae, the wife of Minos and the mother of the Minotaur and Circe, the powerful enchantress of Aeaea. Helios was married to Perse, but just like many other male gods, he had quite a few well-known affairs, most famously with Clymene, Rhode, and Leucothoe.
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