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Eos

EE os

Ηως

Erigeneia, The Dawn

Eos

Eos in The Iliad (reference)
Eos in The Odyssey (reference)
Other Text References

Eos is the rosy-armed goddess of the Dawn. She resides in the east near the home of her brother Helios (the Sun) and the Dread-Goddess Kirke (Circe). Eos mounts her chariot each morning and guides her horses Lampos (Lampus) and Phaethon into the sky to signal the approach of Helios.

Determining the parents of Eos presents a problem because of the antiquity of her birth ... after all, she was literally born at the dawn of time. Her father was definitely Hyperion, who was one of the Titans, i.e. a child of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (the Heavens). Eos's mother is listed as two different goddesses and both references come from the same time period (circa 750 BCE). Eos's mother was either a Titan named Theia or Euryphaessa. In Theogony by Hesiod, Euryphaessa is not mentioned as a Titan but in a Homeric Hymn to Helios, Euryphaessa is listed as the sister/wife of Hyperion which would imply that she was a Titan. Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa were also the parents of tireless Helios and rich-tressed Selene (the Moon).

Eos holds a place of distinction for the mortals of the earth because Dawn is the only time of the day which has a special goddess and Eos is celebrated in almost every poem of the ancient Greeks ... noon and sunset do not seem to have the importance which Eos possesses.

Eos rarely enters the affairs of the mortals on the earth but she is notorious for some of her lovers and children.

In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, we are told the story of Eos and her abducted lover Tithonos (Tithonus). When Eos went to Zeus to request immortality for her mortal lover, Zeus nodded and made it so. With Tithonos, she bore King Memnon of Ethiopia and Lord Emathion. In her haste for Zeus's approval, Eos did not ask for perpetual youth for Tithonos and, as the years passed, he began to age until he finally lost all strength in his limbs. Eos, with love and pity, put him in a private room and shut the shining doors. We can only assume that he is still there.

King Memnon was a Trojan ally in the Trojan War. The Trojan War was instigated by Zeus with the intention of ridding the world of the demigods, i.e. the children of Immortals who mated with mortals. Memnon was a demigod and therefore slated to die ... he was killed by one of the most famous demigods to ever live, Achilles.

Eos was also the consort of Astraios (Astraeus) and they became the parents of the Winds: Zephyros (West Wind), Boreas (North Wind) and Notos (South Wind).

Eos also bore a host of shining stars including Eosphoros (Aosphoros), the dawn star. The father of Eosphoros is unknown.

A love affair which was even more tragic than her relationship with Tithonos, was Eos's obsession with a mortal man named Kephalos (Cephalus). Kephalos was married to a woman named Prokris (Procris), who was the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens. The happy marriage of Kephalos and Prokris was soon disrupted by Eos who desired the companionship of Kephalos and abducted him. Eos and Kephalos had a splendid son named Phaethon.

Understandably, Prokris became jealous of Kephalos's affair with Eos so, to ease Prokris's anger, the goddess Artemis gave her a dog which had once belonged to King Minos of the island of Crete. The dog was named Lailaps (Storm) and could catch anything it pursued. Also, Artemis gave Prokris a spear that would strike any prey at which it was thrown. Prokris gave the hound and spear to Kephalos as an act of reconciliation but she was still unsure of Eos's intentions. Acting on her suspicions, Prokris secretly followed Kephalos when he went hunting. When Kephalos heard a noise in the bushes he hurled the spear at what he thought was an animal but hit Prokris, killing her.

Eos's and Kephalos's son Phaethon inherited his mother's radiant beauty and was so handsome that Aphrodite (goddess of Love) stole him away and kept him as her temple-keeper.

Eos abdicting Kephalos

Eos abdicting Kephalos

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Eos in The Iliad

(listed by book and line)

The line numbers listed here correspond fairly well with the Lattimore and Murray/Wyatt translations of The Iliad. Other translations (Fitzgerald, Fagles et al) do not correspond as well but, with a small amount of effort, you should be able to find the reference you need regardless of the translation you use.

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Eos in The Odyssey

(listed by book and line)

The line numbers listed here correspond fairly well with the Lattimore and Murray/Dimock translations of The Odyssey. Other translations (Fitzgerald, Fagles et al) do not correspond as well but, with a small amount of effort, you should be able to find the reference you need regardless of the translation you use.

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Other Text References

Theogony

Hymn to Hermes IV

Hymn to Aphrodite V

Hymn to Helios XXXII

The Aethiopis

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