Helios is called { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, the never-tiring; { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, the all-seeing; { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}, the shining; and also { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, the brilliant. This last epithet { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} has grown into an independent deity Phoebus, and it is particularly known as a name of Apollon, Phoibos Apollon; thus showing what is also known from other sources, that in Apollo, too, we have one of the many mythic disguises of the sun.
So far all is clear, because all the names which we have to deal with are intelligible, or, at all events, yield to the softest etymological pressure. But now if we hear the story of Phoibos Apollon falling in love with Daphne, and Daphne praying to her mother, the Earth, to save her from Phoibos; and if we read how either the earth received her in her lap, and then a laurel tree sprang up where she had disappeared, or how she herself was changed into a laurel tree, what shall we think of this? It is a mere story, it might be said, and why should there be any meaning in it? My answer is, because people do not tell such stories of their gods and heroes, unless there is some sense in them. Besides, if Phoibos means the sun, why should not Daphne have a meaning too? Before, therefore, we can decide whether the story of Phoibos and Daphne is a mere invention, we must try to find out what can have been the meaning of the word Daphne.