Eos

Eos is the Titan goddess of the dawn in Greek mythology, the one who rises each morning from her bed to bring light to gods and mortals alike. Hesiod makes her the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and the sister of Helios, the sun, and Selene, the moon (Theogony 371–374). Homer calls her “rosy-fingered” and “saffron-robed”; the Romans knew her as Aurora.

The Role and Symbolism of Eos

Goddess of the Dawn

In the Odyssey, Dawn rises from the bed of Tithonus to bring light to the immortals and to mortals (Odyssey 5.1–2). Her house and dancing floors lie on the island of Aeaea, where the sun rises (Odyssey 12.3–4). Homer’s stock phrases for her are “rosy-fingered” (for example Iliad 1.477) and “saffron-robed” (Iliad 8.1); she is also “golden-throned” (Odyssey 23.244). Her horses, Lampus and Phaethon, are the colts that bring Dawn (Odyssey 23.244–246). Ovid pictures Aurora throwing open her purple doors and rose-filled halls while the stars retreat (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.112–114).

Portrayal in Art and Literature

In the earliest poetry Dawn is shown mainly through her epithets, her horses and her loves, and the poets use her rising as the usual way of marking the start of a new day (for example Iliad 1.477, 8.1).

Family and Relationships

Parents and Siblings

Hesiod says that Theia, overcome in love by Hyperion, bore great Helios, bright Selene and Eos, who shines on all who live on earth and on the immortal gods who hold the broad sky (Theogony 371–374). Hyperion and Theia were themselves children of Heaven and Earth (Theogony 132–136; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2). Together the three siblings are the sun, the moon and the dawn.

Consorts and Offspring

Eos had many lovers, both immortal and mortal. The main ones are these.

• Astraeus: a Titan, son of Crius and Eurybia (Theogony 375–376). Eos bore him the winds Zephyrus, Boreas and Notus, as well as the Morning Star, Eosphorus, and the shining stars that crown the sky (Theogony 378–382; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.4).
• Tithonus: a Trojan prince. Hesiod says that Eos bore him Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and lord Emathion (Theogony 984–985). Apollodorus says that Eos carried Tithonus off to Ethiopia, where she bore both sons (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.4), and that Heracles later killed Emathion in Arabia (Library 2.5.11).
• Orion: the giant hunter whom Eos took, until Artemis killed him in Ortygia, to the anger of the gods (Odyssey 5.121–124). Apollodorus says she carried him off to Delos (Library 1.4.4).
• Cephalus: a young Athenian whom Eos carried off. Hesiod says that Eos bore him the splendid Phaethon, whom Aphrodite later took to serve as keeper of her temple (Theogony 986–991). Apollodorus gives a different line: Eos bore Tithonus, who in turn had a son Phaethon (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.3).

The Curse of Aphrodite

Apollodorus explains Eos’s many loves in one sentence: Aphrodite made Dawn perpetually in love because she had slept with Ares (Apollodorus, Library 1.4.4). No older source says this.

Myths Involving Eos

The Abduction of Tithonus

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite tells the story. Golden-throned Dawn seized Tithonus, who was of the Trojan royal line, and went to ask Zeus that he might be immortal and live for ever; Zeus granted it. But Dawn, in her folly, forgot to ask for youth for him and to strip away deadly old age. As long as Tithonus was young, she lived with him by the streams of Ocean at the ends of the earth. When the first grey hairs fell from his head and beard, she kept away from his bed, but fed him and clothed him in the house; when he could no longer move his limbs, she laid him in a room and shut the shining doors, and from him flows an endless voice that has no strength left (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 218–238). That ancient version does not say that he turned into anything.

The Fate of Memnon

Memnon, the son of Eos and Tithonus, led the Ethiopians to help Troy. Homer already knows that Antilochus, Nestor’s son, was killed by “the splendid son of shining Dawn” (Odyssey 4.187–188), and Pindar recalls how Antilochus died saving his father from Memnon’s onset (Pindar, Pythian 6.28–42). In Quintus of Smyrna, Achilles kills Memnon in single combat, and Eos, grieving, falls on her son’s body and threatens to leave the sky in darkness. His Ethiopian companions were turned by Eos into birds which circle his tomb and are called the Memnons; Quintus leaves Memnon himself in Hades or on the Elysian Plain (Quintus, Fall of Troy, book 2). In Ovid, Aurora, still wrapped in grief, asks Jupiter to give her son some honour; birds rise from his pyre, and her tears are still shed as dew over the whole world (Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.576–622).

Interpretations and Symbolism

Personification of Dawn

For Homer and Hesiod, Eos is both the goddess and the dawn itself: the same word is used for the divine person and for the morning light, and the poets name the day’s beginning after her (Odyssey 5.1–2; Theogony 372).

The Duality of Immortality

The Tithonus story in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite shows that immortality without youth is a hardship: the goddess obtains one gift for her lover and forgets the other (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 223–224).

Misconceptions and Lesser-Known Facts

Eos vs. Aurora

The Romans called the goddess of the dawn Aurora, and Ovid uses that name for her in his Latin poems (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.113, 13.576–622). The myths of Tithonus, Cephalus and Memnon come from Greek tradition.

Connection to the Morning Star

Hesiod calls the Morning Star Eosphorus (“Dawn-bringer”) and makes him a child of Eos (Theogony 381). The Greek poets make the dawn and the morning star a mother and a son.

Eos Sources

Eos appears in Hesiod’s Theogony (371–382, 984–991), Homer’s Iliad (1.477, 8.1) and Odyssey (4.187–188, 5.1–2, 5.121–124, 12.3–4, 23.244–246), the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (218–238), Pindar’s Pythian 6, Apollodorus’ Library (1.2.2, 1.2.4, 1.4.4, 2.5.11, 3.12.4, 3.14.3), Quintus of Smyrna’s Fall of Troy (book 2) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2.112–114, 13.576–622).

See Also: Hyperion, Theia, Helios, Selene, Astraeus, Tithonus, Memnon, Orion