The Titaness Thea or Theia became, by the Titan Hyperion, mother of the Sun (Helios, Latin Sol) and Moon (Selene, Latin Luna). These deities were but little worshipped in Greece, although Helios is commonly invoked in oaths from Homer down, in his capacity as an all-seeing god. He was worshipped in Rhodes, but elsewhere is of little importance; the attempts to identify him with some other deity, as Apollo or Herakles, which have been frequently made in ancient and modern times, prove little save the credulity of their originators.
In art and in literature Helios is normally represented as a charioteer; exceptionally, however, he rides on horseback, and he is not infrequently winged. His head is commonly surrounded by the radiate disk of the sun, and his team consists of four horses, to which the poets give appropriate names, as Pyroeis (Fiery), Eoös (Orient), Aithon or Aithops (Blazing), Phlegon (Flaming), or the like. His palace is in the East; at night, he plunges into the western sea, or the stream of Ocean, there rests and bathes, and so returns to the East, floating along the stream of Ocean in a huge cup.
Apart from this imaginative description of his daily activities, mythology has but little to say concerning the Sun. He is represented, in the Odyssey, as the owner of certain herds of cattle, seven in nunber, and as many flocks of sheep, fifty head in each, on the vaguely situated island of Thrinakie. In wrath at the action of Odysseus’ men, who kill some of Helios’ cattle to stay their hunger after being long confined on the island by bad weather, he appeals to Zeus, who takes vengeance on his behalf by sinking their ship and drowning them all, save Odysseus himself, who had taken no part in the killing.
It is commonly supposed, from Aristotle onwards, that these cattle and sheep, 350 of each, are an allegory of the days and nights of the year, since 350 is not far off the number of days in twelve lunar months (34). There are seven herds each of bovines and sheep, and seven is a very old sacred number; in each herd there are fifty beasts, and that is a common Greek round figure, for all manner of companies and assemblies.
Helios also plays a part in the tale of the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite, for it is he who tells Hephaistos of his wife’s misconduct. The rest of his mythology consists principally of his love affairs. These are far less numerous than those of Zeus, which is not surprising, for in a warm climate such as that of Greece it is rather the rain than the sun that is thought of as fertilizing, and therefore rather the rain-god than the sun-god who is regarded as married.
His official consort, so to call her, was Perse or Perseis, daughter of Krios and Eurybie; she became the mother of Aietes and Kirke. Among his mistresses were, Klymene, Klytie, Leukothoe and Rhode.
About the middle of the fifth century b.C. a theory arose to the effect that Helios was the same as Apollo. This causes a certain slight confusion between the mythologies of the two deities in later times.The fact that both gods are archers (the sun’s rays being, by a common and natural metaphor, called his arrows) probably helped to start the identification.
Being one of the most prominent of the Titans, the sun is commonly, especially in Latin, called Titan simply.