The Vengeance of Helios

My Living Myth

Youssef Saada

1005788168

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Part I - The Myth

Helios, once the revered God of the Sun, was solely responsible for handling the mantle of carrying the Sun in his chariot across the world, from the East to the West. He was Helios Panoptes the all-seeing, infamous for his knowledge of all that occurred in the world. Yet as the worship of the ancient Gods shifted from Greece to Rome, so did their roles. During this shift, the mantle of the Sun God shifted from Helios to Apollo. This, in turn, caused Helios’ existence to shift towards Tartarus, where he was forgotten and incapacitated.

Apollo took the mantle of Sun God with glee at the additional sacrifices and worship that came his way, as well as the pride he felt for earning the trust of his father Zeus, although he did not much care for the responsibilities that it entailed. Upon assuming these responsibilities, he came to be known as Phoebus Apollo. Over the centuries, humanity had learnt a great deal about the potential of Apollo’s wrath. The first to incite it was Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, when he refused to release the daughter of a priest of Apollo, inciting the first recorded instance of plague brought upon the Ancient Greeks. He shot his arrows filled with pestilence at the Greeks and caused the suffering and deaths of thousands. Over the centuries, Apollo’s tendencies towards unleashing the horrors of disease upon humanity became infamous. Arguably the most famous instance of when his wrath was last invoked extensively was the unleashing of the bubonic plague in the 14th century.

As the millennia and centuries passed Apollo grew resentful towards Helios for leaving him with this burden. His hatred for the role grew as more time passed, eventually turning into an obsession with being relieved of his duties. He sought to return to the freedoms of healing, disease, music, art, poetry, archery, knowledge, truth, and prophecy. He needed to feel unencumbered with the weight of the responsibility of carrying the Sun chariot across the world every day. His thoughts went towards reviving Helios and reinstating him as the God of the Sun.

He attempted to resurrect Helios by coercing humanity into believing in him once more. He unleashed a disease upon man unlike any that had been seen before, turning humanity against each other in an epidemic of epic proportions. He carefully selected the location of the only known cure, on the island of Rhodes, where the Colossus of Rhodes once stood. He sent humanity the message of whom their savior was. As people the world over began to remember and worship Helios once more, his consciousness stirred from Tartarus and he awakened once more, this time with a vengeance.

Much to Apollo’s delight, Helios immediately resumed his role as the Sun God. Unbeknownst to him, however, was that as Helios spent millennia in a catatonic state, mulling over the reasons of his demise, his rage grew in his slumber. Yet he understood that the Olympians would never allow him to unleash his fury upon humanity outright. Instead, he devised a plan to slowly but surely cause their destruction. Every year he would incrementally increase the power of the Sun upon humanity until eventually their lives would become unsustainable and they all perished. On certain occasions his anger would overcome him momentarily, and he would cause small natural disasters to give them a taste of what was to come. He found the term the mortals had coined, ‘Global Warming’, to be most amusing. Things were only just starting to heat up.

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Part II - The Analysis

The myth begins by providing a brief overview of who exactly the deity Helios was. It is identical to the texts of the ancient sources provided. “HE′LIOS (Hêlios or Êelios), that is, the sun, or the god of the sun.” (Hom. Od. xii. 176, 322, Hymn. in Min. 9, 13; Hes. Theog. 371, &c.)

In both the ancient sources and the myth constructed, Helios is the God of the Sun and carried it across the sky in a flaming chariot, as well as being all seeing. Similar to the Riordan interpretation of ancient myths, the passage starts with an overview of the deity or mythological character involved. This is to provide context for those who may not already have prior knowledge of the characters. In the case of a myth as short as the one constructed the information provided about the character must be relevant to the story itself.

The myth then begins to deviate from the ancient sources. Whilst in some of the ancient sources provided Apollo is in fact the God of the Sun and has the duties that are entailed. “He met a Sidonian who declared the two gods to be identical, and Pausanias adds that this was quite in accordance with the belief of the Greeks.” (Comp. Strab. xiv. p. (635; Plut. de Ei ap. Delph. 4, de Def.Orae. 7.) The myth deviates when it states that Helios’ lack of worship in Roman society caused him to be banished to Tartarus. This variance from the ancient sources is integral to the plot of the myth. This is because it provides an explanation for his absence from the ancient sources provided whilst simultaneously being a plot device to explain his anger towards humanity. His anger caused not just by the disrespect humanity showed him by forgetting his existence, but it also sentenced him to eternal incapacitation in Tartarus, the abyss for the wicked. The time that he spends in the prison of the evil Titans serving as cruel irony for Helios, a child of two Titans, who never participated in their cruel practices. The discrepancy providing a justification for his vindictive actions.

The myth uses the conflicting narratives of Apollo and Helios to its advantage, utilizing the ancient sources that state that Apollo and Helios were completely different deities in order to create a distinction between the two. “In the time of Callimachus, some persons distinguished between Apollo and Helios, for which they were censured by the poet.” (Fragm. 48, ed. Bentley.) However, it also uses the ancient sources that states that Helios and Apollo were one and the same to its advantage, by utilizing these sources to provide Apollo with the responsibilities of being the Sun God. The myth utilizes a combination of the ancient sources in order to create its own narrative. It creates its own event to justify the discrepancy in the sources, where Apollo’s role as the Sun God is a result of humanity’s lack of reverence for Helios. In the myth the use of the surname Phoebus characterizes the difference between Apollo prior to assuming the role of Helios and Apollo after these responsibilities have been accepted. The myth then stays true to the ancient sources, which portray him as reliant on Zeus for his powers, to explain his initial positive emotions towards taking on the role of the Sun God. “He sprang up and demanded a lyre and a bow, and declared, that henceforth he would declare to men the will of Zeus.” (Comp. Theognis, 5, &c.; Eurip. Hecub. 457, &c.)

The myth then utilizes the ancient texts to provide an example of the way that human actions can lead directly to divine intervention. In this case, it is specifically to showcase Apollo’s penchant for punishment when angered, namely during the Trojan War when he inflicted disease upon the Greeks. “‘Hear me, Apollo! God of the silver bow who strides the walls of Chryse and Cillasacrosanct-lord in power of Tenedos-smintheus, god of the plague!’” (Hom. Iliad Book 1; 43-45). The impact of this story is multifaceted. It warns of the ruinous powers that Apollo will utilize to further his own desire. It foreshadows the destructive impact that Gods can have upon humanity when angered. The primary deity in question being Helios and his impact upon climate within the narrative of the myth.

The myth then proceeds to shift away from the ancient sources once more. Whilst in the ancient sources, Apollo remains a faithful lieutenant to Zeus, to whom his powers are connected. In the myth, he is portrayed as selfish and fatigued, unable to deal with the pressures placed upon him as the new Sun God. This variation is used to provide a measure of relation and reason to his actions, when he decides to seek out a method to revive Helios. The inability to cope with the weight of responsibility providing Apollo with a very fallible human feature for an immortal being.

A key facet of the myth’s narrative is different to any ancient source. In the myth Helios’ deterioration is not brought on by any conflict or agenda against him from the Gods. His demise is a result of humanity’s lack of veneration and worship of him. The ancient sources never placed any power in humanity’s belief in these deities, rather they would portray any human disrespect or lack of worship towards Gods as the reason for their demise. This difference is integral to the foundation of the plot, as without it there is no explanation for his absence and subsequent return. It is a fundamental difference that creates the reason for conflict to occur. His restoration as a significant deity requires the belief of the people, a feature that is unique to his situation as a God whose place was usurped. The symbolism of the disappeared Colossus of Rhodes is utilized to represent the nature of his fallen status, whilst the cure is the manifestation of not just humanity’s salvation, but of Helios’ return.

The key similarity between the myth’s portrayal of Helios and that of the ancient sources is his willingness to utilize his powers in acts of righteousness against those who have wronged him. “O Father Zeus, O blessed and ever-living gods, take vengeance on the crew of Laertes' son Odysseus; in their lawlessness they have slain the cattle in which I always took delight,” (Homer, Odyssey 12. 261 ff). In the ancient sources his infamous acts of vengeance against the crew of Odysseus are used to showcase the extent of wrath, though it was Zeus who enacted it. In the myth, Helios is not wronged by any individual group or city of people, rather it is all of humanity that has ceased to worship him. As such, according to his sense of righteousness, it is his duty to exact vengeance upon all of humanity, as it is, they who wronged him. The key difference in this situation is that previously he had requested Zeus’ assistance in fulfilling his retribution, whilst due to the nature of the events in the myth, he would have to hide his true agenda from all Olympians.

The myth utilizes a number of different ancient sources in order to fulfill the narrative that it has constructed. They were manipulated and changed to construct characters that would fulfill the plot. This was accomplished by personifying the Gods in question, Apollo and Helios, based upon their actions in these sources. These characteristics were then used in conjunction with the events that occurred in these ancient sources, in order to construct a plot that would provide an effective explanation for global warming and the effects.

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Part 3 - Bibliography

https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Helios.html

https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Apollon.html

https://www.coursehero.com/file/p2t8e6m/a-Hear-me-Apollo-God-of-the-silver-bow-who-strides-the-walls-of-Chryse-and/

Hom. Od. xii. 176, 322, Hymn. in Min. 9, 13; Hes. Theog. 371, &c

Comp. Strab. xiv. p. (635; Plut. de Ei ap. Delph. 4, de Def.Orae. 7

Fragm. 48, ed. Bentley

Comp. Theognis, 5, &c.; Eurip. Hecub. 457, &c.

Hom. Iliad Book 1; 43-45

Homer, Odyssey 12. 261 ff