Heliadae

The Heliadae were the seven sons of the sun-god Helios and the nymph Rhode (Rhodos), after whom the island of Rhodes is named. Their names were Ochimus, Cercaphus, Macar, Actis, Tenages, Triopas and Candalus. They were the first learned men of Rhodes and, after a murder among the brothers, the fathers of its early cities (Diodorus Siculus 5.56–57; Pindar, Olympian 7.71–76).

Parentage

Pindar calls the island’s nymph Rhodes, the sea-born child of Aphrodite and the bride of Helios (Olympian 7.13–14). He says Helios was joined with Rhodes and she bore seven sons who had the wisest thoughts of the men of earlier times; one of them fathered Camirus, Ialysus and Lindus, who divided the land into three parts and founded cities that bear their names (Olympian 7.71–76).

Diodorus, writing of the legends of Rhodes, gives another parentage: the nymph Rhodos was a daughter of Poseidon and Halia, the sister of the Telchines, and Helios, falling in love with her, named the island after her and caused the flood water to drain away. Diodorus also offers a rationalising version, that the sun dried the muddy island and so the Heliadae, named after him, came into being from the earth, seven in number (Diodorus Siculus 5.55.4, 5.56.3). He lists the seven sons by name and adds one daughter, Electryone, who died as a maiden and was honoured by the Rhodians like a hero (Diodorus Siculus 5.56.5). Do not confuse these sons with the Heliades, the daughters of Helios who mourned their brother Phaethon and were turned into poplars (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.340–366).

The Heliadae and Athena

When the Heliadae grew up, Helios told them that the first people to sacrifice to Athena would have the goddess dwelling among them. In their haste, Diodorus says, they forgot to put fire beneath the victims, though they laid the offering on the altars before Cecrops of Athens made his own sacrifice with fire. For this reason, the Rhodians kept a special manner of sacrificing and, on this account, Athena has her seat on the island (Diodorus Siculus 5.56.5–7). Pindar tells the same story: Helios warned his sons to be the first to build an altar to the goddess, but they went up to the acropolis without the seed of fire and founded a precinct with fireless offerings, and Zeus rained gold on them while Athena gave them skill in every craft (Olympian 7.39–50).

Learning and Seamanship

Diodorus says that the Heliadae surpassed other men in learning, especially in astrology. They introduced many new practices in seamanship and divided the day into hours (Diodorus Siculus 5.57.1). He does not say that they drove the Telchines out: in his account the Telchines foresaw the flood and left the island on their own, before the Heliadae were born (Diodorus Siculus 5.56.1).

The Murder of Tenages

The most gifted by nature of the brothers was Tenages, and the others killed him out of envy. When the crime was discovered, the murderers fled (Diodorus Siculus 5.57.2).

• Macar went to Lesbos.
• Candalus went to Cos.
• Actis sailed to Egypt, where he founded the city of Heliopolis and named it after his father; the Egyptians learned astrology from him (Diodorus Siculus 5.57.2).
• Triopas, the fourth killer, came to the Chersonese, where Elisseus the king purified him. He then went to Thessaly, and from there to the territory of Cnidus, where he founded Triopium (Diodorus Siculus 5.61.1–3). In Diodorus’ shorter account he simply sails to Caria and seizes the promontory named Triopium after him (Diodorus Siculus 5.57.6).

Ochimus and Cercaphus

The two sons who had no hand in the murder, Ochimus and Cercaphus, stayed in Rhodes and made their homes in the territory of Ialysus, where they founded the city of Achaea. Ochimus was the eldest and the king. He married the local nymph Hegetoria and had a daughter, Cydippe, whose name was later changed to Cyrbia. Cercaphus, his brother, married her and succeeded to the throne (Diodorus Siculus 5.57.6–7).

When Cercaphus died, his three sons Lindus, Ialysus and Cameirus (Camirus) inherited the supreme power. A great deluge came in their lifetime and buried the city of Cyrbe, so the three divided the land among themselves, and each founded a city bearing his name (Diodorus Siculus 5.57.8). Pindar likewise says that Camirus, Ialysus and Lindus divided the land into three and gave their names to their cities (Olympian 7.73–76).

Heliadae Sources

Pindar, Olympian 7.13–14, 7.39–50, 7.71–76; Diodorus Siculus 5.55–57, 5.61; Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.340–366.

See Also: Helios, Rhode, Telchines, Heliades, Phaethon