Halieia

The tradition & historical record

The Halieia (Ancient Greek: Ἁλίεια, Halíeia) or Halia was one of the principal festivals celebrated on the island of Rhodes in honour of their patron god Helios, the Sun. It was held every year in summer, with gymnic and musical contests and a great procession. ¹

The name of the festival derives from Halios, the Doric spelling of Helios' name. ¹

The festival included games of horse-racing and chariot-racing, gymnastic contests for men and boys, as well as music contests, and a sacrifice. The prize offered for the victors was a wreath of white poplar, a tree which was sacred to the god, due to the brilliance of its shining leaves. According to Festus (s. v. October Equus), the Halieia also included a ritual, that took place on the 24th day of the summer month of Gorpiaeus, where the Rhodians sacrificed to the god a team of four white horses, by driving a four-horse chariot, representing the chariot of the sun, into the sea. This ritual symbolised the setting of the sun as it sinks into the sea, and in that way the Rhodians honoured his role as the celestial charioteer. The Halieia drew athletes and musicians from all over the Greek world, and when the Colossus of Rhodes was erected in the harbour, the cult gained even more fame; the festival attracted great athletes from abroad, and victors of games such as the Pythia, the Isthmia and the Nemea found it worthwhile to compete in the Halieia. ¹

Rituals involving the sacrifice of horses in a similar manner to the sea-god Poseidon Hippios are also attested, and might have influenced the horse-sacrificing rituals to Helios. The Argives drowned horses in Poseidon's honour, in Illyria horses were offered to him every four years in the same manner as during the Halieia, while he was worshipped as Hippios, god of horses, in Lindos, one of the principal Rhodian cities. Scholars have associated these rites, along with those of another Rhodian festival, the Hippokathesia. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Halieia”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Halieia is ancient Rhodian festival in honor of Helios, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²