Heliades- Greek GroupCollective"Daughters of Helios"
Also known as: Ἡλιάδες and Hēliades
Description
The daughters of Helios and sisters of Phaethon, who mourned his death so intensely that their bodies took root in the earth and became poplar trees. Their tears, hardened by the sun, became amber.
Mythology & Lore
The Mourning
The Heliades were the daughters of Helios and the Oceanid Clymene, sisters of Phaethon. When their brother seized the reins of his father's sun chariot and lost control, Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt. His body fell blazing into the river Eridanus.
The Heliades gathered on the riverbanks and wept for four months. In Ovid's telling, their feet took root in the earth. Bark crept up their legs. Their arms stretched into branches. When their mother Clymene found them, she tore at the bark, and sap like blood ran from the wounds. Parce, precor, mater! the daughters cried. Every wound Clymene opened in the tree, she opened in her daughter's flesh. One by one their mouths were sealed. The last sounds from the poplar grove were cries for their mother.
The Amber Tears
Even as trees, the Heliades continued to weep. Their tears hardened in the sun and became drops of amber that fell from the branches into the Eridanus.
Relationships
- Associated with