The Heliades transforming into Poplar Trees
The Heliades (meaning: daughters of the sun), also referred to as the Phaethontides (meaning: the daughters of Phaethon) were a sisterhood of Nymphs, the daughters of the Sun God, Helios and the Oceanid, Klymene.
Names[]
According to one version recorded by Hyginus, there were three Heliades: Aegiale, Aegle, and Aetheria. According to another version, there were five: Helia, Merope, Phoebe, Aetheria and Dioxippe. Aeschylus's fragmentary Heliades names Phaethousa and Lampetia, who are otherwise called daughters of Neaera. A scholiast on the Odyssey gives their names as Phaethusa, Lampetia and Aegle.
Genealogy and Family[]
The Heliades are the daughters of Helios, God of the Sun and an Oceanid Nymph, Klymene and the sisters of the minor god, Phaethon. Their grandparents are Hyperion, Theia, Oceanus and Tethys.
Stories[]
In some accounts they lived with their parents, but in other stories they moved with their mother and brother, when Klymene divorced Helios and remarried to Merops, King of Ethiopia. Where they lived in the royal palace, when Phaethon died after attempting to drive his father's chariot (the sun) across the sky. He was unable to control the horses and fell to his death (according to most accounts, Zeus struck his chariot with a thunderbolt to save the Earth from being set afire). The Heliades grieved for four months and the gods turned them into poplar trees and their tears into amber. According to some sources, their tears (amber) fell into the river Eridanus, in which Phaethon had fallen.
According to Hyginus, the Heliades were turned to poplar trees because they yoked the chariot for their brother without their father Helios' permission.
Skills and Abilties[]
Seemingly by their name and their father, they likely had powers associated with the sun