Editing Helios (section)

==== Archaic and Classical Athens ====
[[File:Helios LACMA M.88.91.106.jpg|thumb|250px|''Helios the Sun'', by Hendrik Goltzius (Holland, Mülbracht [now Bracht-am-Niederrhein], 1558-1617]]

Scholarly focus on the ancient Greek cults of Helios has generally been rather slim, partially due to how scarce both literary and archaeological sources are.<ref name=":gender" /> L.R. Farnell assumed "that sun-worship had once been prevalent and powerful among the [[Pelasgians|people of the pre-Hellenic culture]], but that very few of the communities of the later historic period retained it as a potent factor of the state religion".<ref>Farnell, L.R. (1909) ''The Cults of the Greek States'' (New York/London: Oxford University Press) vol.&nbsp;v, p&nbsp;419f.</ref> The largely Attic literary sources used by scholars present ancient Greek religion with an Athenian bias, and, according to J. Burnet, "no Athenian could be expected to worship Helios or Selene, but he might think them to be gods, since Helios was the great god of Rhodes and Selene was worshiped at Elis and elsewhere".<ref>J. Burnet, ''Plato: Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, and Crito'' (New York/London: Oxford University Press) 1924, p.&nbsp;111.</ref>[[Aristophanes]]' ''Peace'' (406–413) contrasts the worship of Helios and Selene with that of the more essentially Greek [[Twelve Olympians]].<ref>Notopoulos 1942:265.</ref>

[[File:Roman - Alexander Helios - Walters 542290.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Alexander the Great as Helios, Roman, cast bronze, 1st century, [[Walters Art Museum]].]]

The tension between the mainstream traditional religious veneration of Helios, which had become enriched with ethical values, poetical symbolism,<ref>Notopoulos 1942 instances [[Aeschylus]]' ''[[Oresteia|Agamemnon]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D488 508], ''[[Oresteia|Choephoroe]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0008%3Acard%3D973 993], ''[[The Suppliants (Aeschylus)|Suppliants]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0016%3Acard%3D207 213], and [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0192%3Acard%3D660 660] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0192%3Acard%3D1416 1425].</ref> and the Ionian proto-scientific examination of the sun, clashed in the trial of [[Anaxagoras]] c. 450 BC, in which Anaxagoras asserted that the Sun was in fact a gigantic red-hot ball of metal.<ref>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anaxagoras/ Anaxagoras biography]</ref>