In the Greeks' imagination, there had to be a divine being that emerges from a sea bay in the east in the morning and returns there in the evening. Depictions show Helios / Sol mostly with the crown of rays and riding on a four-horse carriage.
Helios sees and hears everything, is witness to all good and evil deeds, brings injustice to light and is called upon as an oath witness. But as the god of healing, he is also the god of sight and a god who heals blindness and punishes the guilty with blindness. He contains creative life force and has been a symbol of life since the time of the poet Homer. Helios comes from a family of light figures. His sisters are Selene (Luna) and Eos (Aurora).
This statuette will have had a halo of rays soldered behind its curls; the right hand may have been open frontally in greeting or it may once have held the globe, the left hand probably a donation bowl.
The inscription on the base clearly refers to the context of provincial Roman military culture, in which Sol played a major role from the 2nd century AD onwards. (AVS)
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