Editing Helios (section)

=== Involvement in wars ===
[[File:4. Silahtarağa Statuary Group at the Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul, Turkey, 2nd century CE. This is one of the deities.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Helios from the Silahtarağa Statuary Group depicting the Gigantomachy, 2nd century AD, [[Archaeological Museum of Istanbul]].]]

Helios sides with the other gods in several battles.<ref name=":gig">[[Diodorus Siculus]], ''[[Bibliotheca historica|Historic Library]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#p289 5.71.3]</ref> Surviving fragments from ''[[Titanomachy (epic poem)|Titanomachy]]'' imply scenes where Helios is the only one among the Titans to have abstained from attacking the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian gods]],<ref>Fr. *4 Serv. in Aen. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053%3Abook%3D6%3Acommline%3D580 6.580] (de Titanomachia; II 81.12–13 Thilo et Hagen) [= *4 GEF]</ref> and they, after the war was over, gave him a place in the sky and awarded him with his chariot.<ref>''[[Titanomachy (epic poem)|Titanomachy]]'' fragments 4.GEF, 11.EGEF and 12.EGEF in Tsagalis, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=lL0vDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]</ref><ref name=":mad">Madigan, pp [https://books.google.com/books?id=9moee6JH6FAC&pg=PA48 48–49]</ref>

He also takes part in the Giant wars; it was said by [[Pseudo-Apollodorus]] that during the battle of the [[Giants (Greek mythology)|Giants]] against the gods, the giant [[Alcyoneus]] stole Helios' cattle from [[Erytheia]] where the god kept them,<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Library]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D1 1.6.1]</ref> or alternatively, that it was Alcyoneus' very theft of the cattle that started the war.<ref>Scholia on [[Pindar]], ''Isthmian Odes'' [https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg5034.tlg001d.perseus-grc1:6.47 6.47b]</ref><ref>Gantz, pp. 419, 448–449</ref> Because the [[earth]] goddess Gaia, mother and ally of the Giants, learned of the prophecy that the giants would perish at the hand of a mortal, she sought to find a magical herb that would protect them and render them practically indestructible; thus Zeus ordered Helios, as well as his sisters Selene (Moon) and Eos ([[Dawn]]) not to shine, and harvested all of the plant for himself, denying Gaia the opportunity to make the Giants immortal, while Athena summoned the mortal Heracles to fight by their side.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Library]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D1 1.6.1]; Hansen, p. [https://archive.org/details/handbookofclassi0000hans/page/178/mode/2up?view=theater 178]; Gantz, [https://archive.org/details/early-greek-myth-a-guide-timothy-gantz/page/448/mode/2up?view=theater 449]</ref>

[[File:Altar Pérgamo Helios 01.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|Helios on his chariot fighting a Giant, detail of the Gigantomachy frieze, [[Pergamon Altar]], [[Pergamon museum]], Berlin]]

At some point during the battle of gods and giants in [[Phlegra (mythology)|Phlegra]],<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Oresteia|Eumenides]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0006%3Acard%3D276 294]; [[Euripides]], ''[[Herakles (Euripides)|Heracles Gone Mad]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=779AD6C623207413812A728B409D9381?doc=Eur.+Her.+1192 1192–1194]; ''[[Ion (play)|Ion]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Ion+987 987–997]; [[Aristophanes]], ''[[The Birds (play)|The Birds]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0019,006:824&lang=original 824]; [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/argonautica00apoluoft#page/210/mode/2up 3.232–234 (pp. 210–211)], [https://archive.org/stream/argonautica00apoluoft#page/276/mode/2up 3.1225–7 (pp. 276–277)]. See also Hesiod fragment 43a.65 MW (Most 2007, p. 143, Gantz, p. 446)</ref> Helios takes up an exhausted Hephaestus on his chariot.<ref>[[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' [https://archive.org/details/argonautica00apoluoft/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater 3.220–234]</ref> After the war ends, one of the giants, [[Picolous]], flees to [[Aeaea]], where Helios' daughter, Circe, lived. He attempted to chase Circe away from the island, only to be killed by Helios.<ref>[[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]], ''Ad Odysseam'' 10.305; translation by Zucker and Le Feuvre p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EAYREAAAQBAJ&pg=PT324 324]: "Alexander of [[Paphos]] reports the following tale: Picoloos, one of the Giants, by fleeing from the war led against Zeus, reached Circe's island and tried to chase her away. Her father Helios killed him, protecting his daughter with his shield; from the blood which flowed on the earth a plant was born, and it was called μῶλυ because of the {{lang|grc|μῶλος}} or the battle in which the Giant aforementioned was killed."</ref><ref>''The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius: Book III'', p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yQU4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA89 89 note 845]</ref><ref>Le Comte, p. [https://archive.org/details/poetsriddlesessa0000leco/page/74/mode/2up?view=theater 75]</ref> From the blood of the slain giant that dripped on the earth a new plant was sprang, the [[herb]] [[Moly (herb)|moly]], named thus from the battle ("malos" in [[Ancient Greek]]).<ref>Knight, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=292mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 180]</ref>

Helios is depicted in the [[Pergamon Altar]], waging war against Giants next to Eos, Selene, and Theia in the southern frieze.<ref>Picón and Hemingway, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vr3WCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]</ref><ref>[https://weblimc.org/page/monument/2071289 ''LIMC'' 617 (Helios)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716120337/https://weblimc.org/page/monument/2071289 |date=2023-07-16 }}.</ref><ref>Faita, pp [https://archive.org/details/THEGREATALTAROFPERGAMONTHEMONUMENTINITSFHISTORICALANDCULTURALCONTEXTBYANTONIASTELLAFAITA2000/page/n213/mode/2up?q=&view=theater 202–203]</ref><ref name=":mad" /><ref>Now housed in the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]] and can be seen [https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153313/rein-guide-for-a-chariot-with-a-scene-of-the-battle-of-the-g?ctx=9f6c1772-3544-4c76-85a7-593a85983117&idx=82 here].</ref>

[[File:Phébus&Borée.jpg|thumb|right|250px|''Phoebus and Boreas'', [[Jean-Baptiste Oudry]]'s cosmic interpretation of La Fontaine's fable, 1729/34]]