Heliades

In Greek mythology, the Heliades also called Phaethontides were the daughters of Helios and Clymene, an Oceanid nymph.

Names

According to one version recorded by Hyginus, there were seven Heliades: Merope, Helie, Aegle, Lampetia, Phoebe, Aetherie and Dioxippe. Aeschylus's fragmentary Heliades names Phaethousa and Lampetia, who are otherwise called daughters of Neaera and have a different role in myth, being in charge of their father's sheep and cattle. A scholiast on the Odyssey gives their names as Phaethusa, Lampetia and Aegle.

Their brother, Phaëthon, died after attempting to drive his father's chariot across the sky. He was unable to control the horses and fell to his death. 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 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.
A proverb preserved in Plutarch associates the tears of the Heliades with great wealth.