Does the Sun Have a Son? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Clymene

Clymene was one of three thousand Oceanids who were the nymph daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. She was loved by the sun god Helios and bore him his son Phaethon although she was married to Merops, the king of Aethiopia.

Answer: Shining or radiant

In his youth Phaethon lived with his mother and it was only after a school colleague laughed at his claim he was the son of a god that he decided to get in touch with his father to prove his legitimacy.

Answer: He lost control and was struck by a thunderbolt.

Helios had promised by the River Styx that he would give his son anything and Phaethon wanted to ride his chariot. When he got into the chariot the horses reared and he lost control. In order to save the Earth from being burned up, Zeus hit the chariot with a thunderbolt and Phaethon fell to his death in the river Eridanos.

Answer: Swan

Cycnus was the King of Liguria in Ancient Greece and a very good friend (and possibly lover) of Phaethon. He was devastated when his friend was killed, and leapt into the river Eridanos and was transformed into a swan by the gods.

Answer: Poplar

The Heliades were the seven nymph daughters of Helios and Clymene and the sisters of Phaethon. They grieved for their brother for four months and then the gods transformed them into poplar trees on the bank of the river Eridanos where he had been killed. Their tears were turned into golden amber.

Answer: Augeas

According to some Greek sources, Augeas was the son of Helios either by Nausidame or Iphiboe. He became king of Elis in the Western Peloponnese. He owned the Augean Stables which housed over 3,000 cattle and had not been cleaned out for 30 years. The cleaning of these stables was chosen as the 5th Labour of Hercules.

He achieved this by diverting the route of the nearby river Alpheus to wash out the enormous quantities of dung that had accumulated over the years.

Answer: Aeetes or Aietes

Aeetes was the son of sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis. He established his kingdom at Colchis. He acquired the golden fleece when Phrixus (an ancestor of Jason) fled to Colchis on the golden ram to escape a plot to kill him. After a warm welcome Phrixus gave Aeetes the ram in gratitude. Aeetes sacrificed the ram and hung it in a sacred grove guarded by a dragon, as an oracle had foretold he would lose his kingdom if he lost the fleece.

Answer: Medea

Medea was the daughter of Aeetes. She fell in love with Jason and conspired against her father to help Jason gain the golden fleece and fled with him to his kingdom where they married and had two children. They had to flee to Corinth where the king, Creon, offered Jason his daughter's hand in marriage. Angered by her husband's betrayal she killed her two children by him and flew to Athens in a chariot provided by her grandfather Helios.

Answer: Actis

Actis was the third of the seven sons of Helios and Rhodos known as the Heliadae. He had to flee to Egypt after he and his brothers conspired to kill their brother Tenages because they were jealous of his skill at science. He built the city of Heliopolis to honour his father.

Answer: Macareus

Macareus was another of the seven sons of Helios and Rhodos. The brothers were all excellent seafarers and astrologers. Along with his brothers Candalus, Triopas and Actis, he had to escape from Rhodes after the murder of his brother Tenages. He fled to Lesbos where he became king and married Leptymnus with whom he had two sons.