brother is about to appear. When he
has burst forth in all the glorious light of day, Eos disappears, and
Helios now drives his flame-darting chariot along the accustomed track.
This chariot, which is of burnished gold, is drawn by four fire-breathing
steeds, behind which the young god stands erect with flashing eyes, his
head surrounded with rays, holding in one hand the reins of those fiery
coursers which in all hands save his are unmanageable. When towards evening
he descends the curve[26] in order to cool his burning forehead in the
waters of the deep sea, he is followed closely by his sister Selene (the
Moon), who is now prepared to take charge of the world, and illumine with
her silver crescent the dusky night. Helios meanwhile rests from his
labours, and, reclining softly on the cool fragrant couch prepared for him
by the sea-nymphs, recruits himself for another life-giving, joy-inspiring,
and beauteous day.

It may appear strange that, although the Greeks considered the earth to be
a flat circle, no explanation is given of the fact that Helios sinks down
in the far {63} west regularly every evening, and yet reappears as
regularly every morning in the east. Whether he was supposed to pass
through Tartarus, and thus regain the opposite extremity through the bowels
of the earth, or whether they thought he possessed any other means of
making this transit, there is not a line in either Homer or Hesiod to
prove. In later times, however, the poets invented the graceful fiction,
that when Helios had finished his course, and reached the western side of
the curve, a winged-boat, or cup, which had been made for him by Hephaestus,
awaited him there, and conveyed him rapidly, with his glorious equipage, to
the east, where he recommenced his bright and glowing career.

This divinity was invoked as a witness when a solemn oath was taken, as it
was believed that nothing escaped his all-seeing eye, and it was this fact
which enabled him to inform Demeter of the fate of her daughter, as already
related. He was supposed to possess flocks and herds in various localities,
which may possibly be intended to represent the days and nights of the
year, or the stars of heaven.

Helios is said to have loved Clytie, a daughter of Oceanus, who ardently
returned his affection; but in the course of time the fickle sun-god
transferred his devotion to Leucothea, the daughter of Orchamus, king of
the eastern countries, which so angered the fors