Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

120 HELIOSmythology placing Helen as a demigoddessidentifies her mother as Leda, the mortal wife ofTyndareus, also seduced by Zeus who fatheredPOLLUX as Helen’s brother. However Hesiodstrongly denied these claims.Homeric legend describes Helen’s marriage toKing Menelaus of Sparta and her subsequentabduction by Paris, said to have been the catalystfor the Trojan War. After her death, mythologygenerally places her among the stars with theDioscuri (sons of Zeus), better known as Castorand Pollux, the twins of the Gemini constellation.Helen was revered on the island of Rhodesas the goddess Dendritis.See also DISKOURI.HELIOSORIGIN Greek. Sun god.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 800 BC inGreece (but an adoption from much earliertimes), until Christianization (circa AD 400).SYNONYMS none.CENTER(S) OF CULT Rhodes.ART REFERENCES Colossus of Rhodes (lost); othersculptures.LITERARY SOURCES Odyssey (Homer); Theogony(Hesiod).Helios is not specifically a Greek deity, sincethe concept of a sun god was more or lessuniversal in the ancient world, but in theTheogony he is identified as the son ofHYPERION and his sister Euryphaessa. He drivesthe chariot of the sun by day and descendsbeneath the ocean at night. On Rhodes,allegedly the site of the largest Greek statue ofa deity, the so-called Rhodes “Colossus” cast inbronze, there was a celebrated festival of Heliosduring which a chariot with four horses wasdriven off a cliff, symbolizing the setting of thesun into the sea.HemantadeviGoddess of winter. Buddhist-Lamaist [Tibet].One of several seasonal deities. Also an attendantof Sridevi. Usually accompanied by a camel.Color: blue. Attributes: cup and hammer.HendursagaGod of the law. Mesopotamian (Sumerian andBabylonian-Akkadian). He was titled by Gudea ofLagaš “herald of the land of Sumer.”HEPHAISTOSORIGIN Greco-Roman, perhaps preceded by Etruscan.God of fire and smithies.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 1500 BC untilChristianization (circa AD 400).SYNONYMS Hephaestus (Roman).CENTER(S) OF CULT sanctuaries on Lemnos and,from circa 450 BC, in Athens opposite theAcropolis on the hill above the Agora. Also asignificant shrine at Ephesus.ART REFERENCES sculptures and reliefs.LITERARY SOURCES Iliad, Odyssey (Homer);Theogony (Hesiod).One of the twelve major deities of Olympus,Hephaistos is one of the sons of HERA who, indisappointment at having borne a child withdeformed legs, threw him to earth where he wastaken in and cared for by the people of Lemnos.In spite of physical disabilities, which set himapart from the other, physically perfect, deitiesof Olympus, Hephaistos draws on peculiar powersin the making of metal objects, which oftenpossess magical qualities. He fathered the race ofarcane KABEIROI blacksmith gods. The Hephaistoscult may have originated on the island of Lemnoswith a tribal group the Greeks knew as Tyrsenoi.Hephaistos consorted briefly with ATHENA, whosubsequently gave birth to Erichthonos, the first