Early Hellenistic architectural relief depicting Helios the sun god in his chariot.

Ilion is another name for Troy, and this sculpture the best preserved metope from the later of two temples to Athena on the site. The metope shows the sun god Helios driving his four horses with such vigour as to be barely contained by the frame. The disc (nimbus) with rays coming out of it behind Helios’s head is unusual, as is the treatment of the horses; they have rather schematic musculature and proportions, with small heads. It is likely that the chariot would have been completed in now-lost paint, as probably were other details, since the carving is not highly finished