Eos



 Eos



 

 Eos was the rosy fingered goddess of the dawn, and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. She and her siblings Helios and Selene were part of the second generation Titans. Eos rose up into the sky from the river Oceanos at the start of each day, and with her rays of light dispersed the mists of night. In the Homeric poems Eos not only announces the coming Helios, but accompanies him throughout the day, and her career is not complete till the evening; hence she is sometimes mentioned where one would have expected Helios.

She was sometimes depicted riding in a golden chariot drawn by winged horses, at other times she was shown borne aloft by her own pair of wings. Eos had an unquenchable desire for handsome young men, some say as the result of a curse laid upon her by the goddess Aphrodite. Her lovers included Orion, Phaethon, Kephalos and Tithonos, three of which she ravished away to distant lands. The Trojan prince Tithonos became her official consort. When the goddess petitioned Zeus for his immortality, she neglected also to request eternal youth. In time he shrivelled up by old age and transformed into a grasshopper.

Eos was closely identified with Hemera, the primordial goddess of day. In some myths--such as the tales of Orion and Kephalos--Eos stood virtually as a non-virginal substitute for Artemis.

 