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Heliades

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Daughters of Helios in Greek mythology For the moth genus of the family Pyralidae, see Heliades (moth). For another set of Helios' children, see Heliadae.
The Sisters of Phaeton Transformed into Poplars by Santi di Tito (2nd half of 16th century)
Greek deities
series
Nymphs

In Greek mythology, the Heliades (Ancient Greek: Ἡλιάδες means 'daughters of the sun') also called Phaethontides (meaning "daughters of Phaethon") were the daughters of Helios and Clymene, an Oceanid nymph.

Heliades by Rupert Bunny, 1920s

Names

According to one version recorded by Hyginus, there were seven Heliades: Merope, Helie, Aegle, Lampetia, Phoebe, Aetherie and Dioxippe. Aeschylus's fragmentary Heliades names Phaethousa and Lampetia, who are otherwise called daughters of Neaera. A scholiast on the Odyssey gives their names as Phaethusa(Φαέθουσα), Lampetia(Λαμπετίην) and Aegle(Αἴγλην).

Mythology

Their brother, Phaëthon, died after attempting to drive his father's chariot (the sun) across the sky. He was unable to control the horses and fell to his death (according to most accounts, Zeus struck his chariot with a thunderbolt to save the Earth from being set afire). The Heliades grieved for four months and the gods turned them into poplar trees and their tears into amber. According to some sources, their tears (amber) fell into the river Eridanus, in which Phaethon had fallen.

According to Hyginus, the Heliades were turned to poplar trees because they yoked the chariot for their brother without their father Helios' permission.

Notes

  1. Smith, s.v. Phaethontiades
  2. Hyginus, Fabulae 154
  3. Aeschylus, Heliades (play survived only in brief fragments); Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.340
  4. Homer, Odyssey 12.128
  5. Scholia ad Homer, Odyssey 17.208
  6. Diodorus Siculus, 5.23.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.262 ff
  7. Pliny, Natural History 37.11.2; Pausanias, 1.4.1; Quintus Smyrnaeus, 5.627 ff
  8. Hyginus, Fabulae 152A

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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