Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/389

Rh HELIOS. Hafiiavov (piXorrocpov roij 'KXio^dpov Aapiaaalov jrepl OTTTiKcov viro64(Te<av fiiSKia j8', which makes it doubtful whether his true name was Damianus or Ileliodorus. The work is chiefly taken from Euclid's Optics. The work was printed at Florence, with an Italian version, by Ignatius Dante, with the Optics of Euclid, 1573, 4to. ; at Hamburgh by F. Lindenbrog, 1610, 4to ; at Paris, by Erasmus Bartholinus, 1657, 4to (reprinted 1680); at Cam- bridge, in Gale's Opuscula Mj/thologica, 1670, 8vo. (but it is omitted in the Amsterdam edition, 1688); and lastly, with a Latin version and a dis- sertation upon the author, by A. Matani, Pistorii, 1758, 8vo. Some other scientific works of Helio- dorus are mentioned. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 128.) 2. Alchymist. (See No. IV.) VI. Several Heliodori of less importance are mentioned by Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. pp. 126, 127.) The Greek writers confound this name with Plerodianus, Herodorus, Herodotus, Hesiodus, and Diodorus. [P. S.] HELIODO'RUS, a statuary in bronze and marble, mentioned by Pliny among the artists who made " athletas et armatos et venatores sacrifican- tesque" (xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 34). He was the maker of a celebrated marble group, representing Pan and Olympus wrestling, which stood in the portico of Octavia, in the time of Pliny, who calls it " alteram in terris symplegma nobile" (xxxvi. 5. s. 4. § 10 ; comp. §. 6, and Cephisodotus.) [P. S.] HELIODO'RUS {'ni6doopos), a surgeon at Rome, probably a contemporary of Juvenal, in the first century after Christ, (Juv. vi. 373.) He may be the same person who wrote a work on surgery, which is quoted by Asclepiades Pharmacion (ap. Gal. De Compos. Medic, sec. Gen. vi. 14, vol. xiii. p. 849), and Paulus Aegineta {De Re Med. iv. 49), and of which only some fragments remain, chiefly preserved by Oribasius and Nicetas. These are to be found in the twelfth volume of Chartier's edition of Galen, and in the Collection of Greek Surgical Writers published by Cocchi, Florence, 1 754, fol. (Haller's Biblioth. Chirurg. vol. i. p. 71 ; Kiihn, Addiiam. ad Eiench. Medic. Vet. a J. A. Fabricio, ^c. ewhibitum.) [W. A. G.] HELIOGA'BALUS. [Elagabalus.] HE'LIOS {"HMos or 'HeAtos), that is, the sun, or the god of the sun. He is described as the son of Hyperion and Theia, and as a brother of Selene and Eos. (Hom. Od. xii. 176, 322, Hymn, in Min. 9, 13; Hes. TIi£o(/. 371, &c.) From his father, he is frequently called Hyperionides, or Hyperion, the latter of which is an abridged form of the pa- tronymic, Hyperionion. (Hom. Od. xii. 176, Hi/mn. in Cer. 74; Hes. T/ieog. 1011; Hom. Od. i. 24, ii. 19, 398, Hi/mn. inApoll. Pyth. 191.) In the Homeric hymn on Helios, he is called a son of Hyperion and Euryphaessa. Homer describes Helios as giving light both to gods and men : he rises in the east from Oceanus, though not from the river, but from some lake or bog {ifivr)) formed by Oceanus, rises up into heaven, where he reaches the highest point at noon time, and then he de- scends, arriving in the evening in the darkness of the west, and in Oceanus. (//. vii. 422, Od. iii. 1, &c., 335, iv. 400, x. 191, xi. 18, xii. 380.) Later poets have marvellousl}^ embellished this simple notion : they tell of a most magnificent palace of Helios in the east, containing a throne HELIOS. 375 occupied by the god, and surrounded by personifi- cations of the different divisions of time (Ov. Met. ii. 1, &c.); and while Homer speaks only of the gates of Helios in the west, later writers assign to him a second palace in the west, and describe his horses as feeding upon herbs growing in the islands of the blessed. (Nonn. Dionys. xii. 1, &c. ; Athen- vii. 296 ; Stat. Tlieb. iii. 407.) The points at which Helios rises and descends into the ocean arc of course different at the difi*erent seasons of the year; and the extreme points in the north and south, between which the rising and setting take place, are the rpoiraX i^ekloio. (Od. xv. 403 ; Hes. Op. et Dies, 449, 525.) The manner in which Helios during the night passes from the western into the eastern ocean is not mentioned either by Homer or Hesiod, but later poets make him sail in a golden boat round one-half of the earth, and thus arrive in the east at the point from which he has to rise again. This golden boat is the work of Hephaestus. (Athen. xi. 469 ; ApoUod. ii. 5. § 10 ; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1632.) Others represent him as making his nightly voyage while slumbering in a golden bed. (Athen. xi. 470.) The horses and chariot with which Helios makes his daily career are not mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey, but first occur in the Homeric hymn on Helios (9, 15 ; comp. in Merc. 69, in Cer. 88), and both are described mi- nutely by later poets. (Ov. Met. ii. 106, &c. ; Hvgin. Fab. 183 ; Schol. ad Eurip. Fhoen. 3 ; Pind. 01. vii. 71.) Helios is described even in the Homeric poems as the god who sees and' hears every thing, but, notwithstanding this, he is unaware of the fact that the companions of Odysseus robbed his oxen, until he was informed of it by Lampetia. {Od. xii. 375.) But, owing to his omniscience, he was able to be- tray to Hephaestus the faithlessness of Aphrodite, and to reveal to Demeter the carrying ofi^ of her daughter. {Od. viii. 271, Hymn, in Cer. 75, &c., in Sol. 10 ; comp. Soph. Ajaoe, 847, &c.) This idea of Helios knowing every thing, which also contains the elements of his ethical and prophetic nature, seems to have been the cause of Helios being confounded and identified with Apollo, though they were originally quite distinct ; and the iden- tification was, in fact, never carried out completely, for no Greek poet ever made Apollo ride in the chariot of Helios through the heavens, and among the Romans we find this idea only after the time of Virgil, The representations of Apollo with rays around his head, to characterise him as identical with the sun, belong to the time of the Roman empire. The island of Thrinacia (Sicily) was sacred to Helios, and he there had flocks of oxen and sheep, each consisting of 350 heads, which never increased or decreased, and were attended to by his daugh- ters Phaetusaand Lampetia. (Hom. Od. xii. 128. 261, &c. ; ApoUon. Rhod. iv. 965, &c.) Later traditions ascribe to him flocks also in the island of Erytheia (Apollod. i. 6. § 1 ; comp. ii. 5. § 10; Theocrit. xxv. 130), and it may be remarked in general, that sacred flocks, especially of oxen, occur in most places where the worship of Helios was established. His descendants are very numerous, and the surnames and epithets given him by the poets are mostly descriptive of his character as the sun. Temples of Helios (TjAteta) seem to have ex- isted in Greece at a very early time (Hom. Od. xii. 346), and in later times we find his worship B B 4