Apollo was the god of practically everything – including but not limited to music, poetry, art, prophecy, truth, archery, plague, healing, sun and light (although the god is always associated with the sun, the original sun god was the titan Helios, but everyone forgot about him).
Helios, (Greek: “Sun”) in Greek religion, the sun god, sometimes called a Titan. He drove a chariot daily from east to west across the sky and sailed around the northerly stream of Ocean each night in a huge cup.
Sol Invictus (Classical Latin: [ˈsoːɫ ɪnˈwɪktʊs], "Unconquered Sun"), sometimes simply known as Helios, was long considered to be the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. In recent years, however, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between traditionalists and a growing group of revisionists.
While these are the universal traits assigned to Zeus, certain city states believed that Zeus had additional responsibilities. For example, in Athens, Zeus was also the god of farming and the harvest...and in Crete, Zeus was god of the sun!
The earliest deities associated with the Sun are all goddesses: Wadjet, Sekhmet, Hathor, Nut, Bast, Bat, and Menhit. First Hathor, and then Isis, give birth to and nurse Horus and Ra, respectively. Hathor the horned-cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra, gifted with joy and is a wet-nurse to Horus.
Phaethon, (Greek: “Shining” or “Radiant”) in Greek mythology, the son of Helios, the sun god, and a woman or nymph variously identified as Clymene, Prote, or Rhode.
In Greek mythology, the sun god was originally Helios (whence words like heliocentric for our sun-centered solar system) and the moon goddess Selene, but over time, this changed. Artemis came to be associated with Selene, just like Apollo with Helios. Apollo became a sun god and Artemis became the goddess of the moon.
Luna was the goddess in heaven and of the full moon (Greek counterpart being Selene), Diana was the goddess on earth and of the halfmoon (Greek Artemis) and Hecate (or Hekate) was the goddess in the underworld and of the dark moon.
The sun was one of the most popular deities, however, among the Indo-European peoples and was a symbol of divine power to them. Surya is glorified in the Vedas of ancient India as an all-seeing god who observes both good and evil actions.
Helios is seen as both a personification of the Sun and the fundamental creative power behind it and as a result is often worshiped as a god of life and creation.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the twelve Olympians are the major deities of the Greek pantheon, commonly considered to be Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus.
Appearances. Helios (also Helius) was the Titan of the sun, but faded due to lack of worship by the Romans, after which his duty of driving the Sun Chariot was passed on to Apollo.
Greek mythology had two sun gods: Helios, the god of the sun, and Apollo, the god of light and justice, who was often conflated with Helios. Roman mythology worshipped Helios as Sol, and the later Roman Empire even crafted a cult of that god, naming him Sol Invictus. There have also been many sun goddesses.
According to the ancient myths, the Sun was put in a chariot and everyday God Helios would drive the chariot all along the sky. That is how the Sun would rise and set. Phaethon was the son the god Helios who secretly took the chariot one day to drive it.
In the Puranic literature, Yamuna is described as the daughter of the sun god Surya (though some say that she was the daughter of Brahma) and his wife Saranyu (Sanjna in later literature), the goddess of the clouds, and the twin sister of Yama, the god of death.
"Beautiful Hebe (Youth) . . . the youngest of the gods and the one most revered by them, since it is through her that they also are young." Cicero, De Natura Deorum 1.
Hathor ascended with Ra and became his mythological wife, and thus divine mother of the pharaoh.
Apopis, also called Apep, Apepi, or Rerek, ancient Egyptian demon of chaos, who had the form of a serpent and, as the foe of the sun god, Re, represented all that was outside the ordered cosmos. Although many serpents symbolized divinity and royalty, Apopis threatened the underworld and symbolized evil.
He got married to Sanjana (sometimes called Saranya), the daughter of Vishwakarma. But his wife could not tolerate the heat coming from him and went back to her father's home after creating her shadow called Chaya to take her place.
Vishnu, Lord of the universe, is a Hindu God known to have reincarnated into more than one form called Avatars. In other words, he is recognizable through the faces of other gods who receive praise within the Hindu beliefs. Here we have sculptures of Vishnu and a few of his forms ranging 8th-19th century.