Eos ( Ἠώς, Greek)
Eos (Greek Ἠώς, or Ἕως "dawn") is, in Greek mythology, the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanus, the Ocean that surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the sun.
The Greek worship of the dawn as a goddess is believed to be inherited from Indo-European times. The name Eos is cognate to Latin Aurora, to Vedic Ushas.
Eos in Greek literature
Greek deities
The dawn goddess, Eos with "rosy fingers" opened the gates of heaven so that Apollo could ride his chariot across the sky every day. In Homer, her saffron-colored robe is embroidered or woven with flowers; rosy-fingered and with golden arms, she is pictured on Attic vases as a supernaturally beautiful woman, crowned with a tiara or diadem and with the large white-feathered wings of a bird.
From The Iliad:
Now when Dawn in robe of saffron was hastening from the streams of Oceanus, to bring light to mortals and immortals, Thetis reached the ships with the armor that the god had given her.
—Iliad xix.1
But soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy-fingered, then gathered the folk about the pyre of glorious Hector.
—Iliad xxiv.776
Quintus Smyrnaeus pictured her exulting in her heart over the radiant horses (Lampos and Phaithon) that drew her chariot, amidst the bright-haired Horae, the feminine Hours, climbing the arc of heaven and scattering sparks of fire.
Eos in her chariot flying over the sea, red-figure krater from South Italy, 430–420 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen
She is most often associated with her Homeric epithet "rosy-fingered" (rhododactylos), but Homer also calls her Eos Erigeneia:
That brightest of stars appeared, Eosphoros, that most often heralds the light of early-rising Dawn (Eos Erigeneia).
—Odyssey xiii.93
Hesiod wrote:
And after these Erigeneia ["Early-born"] bore the star Eosphoros ("Dawn-bringer"), and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned.
—Theogony 378-382
Thus Eos, preceded by the Morning Star (Venus), is seen as the genetrix of all the stars and planets; her tears are considered to have created the morning dew, personified as Ersa or Herse.
Genealogy
Eos is the daughter of Hyperion and Theia (or Pallas and Styx) and sister of Helios the sun and Selene the moon, "who shine upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven" Hesiod told in Theogony (371-374). The generation of Titans preceded all the familiar deities of Olympus, who supplanted them.
Children
According to Hesiod by Tithonus Eos had two sons, Memnon and Emathion. Memnon fought among the Trojans in the Trojan War and was slain. Her image with the dead Memnon across her knees, like Thetis with the dead Achilles and Isis with the dead Osiris, are icons that inspired the Christian Pietà.
The abduction of Cephalus had special appeal for an Athenian audience because Cephalus was a local boy, and so this myth element appeared frequently in Attic vase-paintings and was exported with them. In the literary myths Eos kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting and took him to Syria. The second-century CE traveller Pausanias was informed that the abductor of Cephalus was Hemera, goddess of Day. Although Cephalus was already married to Procris, Eos bore him three sons, including Phaeton and Hesperus, but he then began pining for Procris, causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her — and put a curse on them. in Hyginus' report telling Cephalus accidentally killed Procris some time later after he mistook her for an animal while hunting; in Ovid's Metamorphoses vii, Procris, a jealous wife, was spying on him and heard him singing to the wind, "Aura", but thought he was serenading his ex-lover Aurora (Eos).
Etruscan interpretations
Among the Etruscans, the generative dawn-goddess was Thesan. Depictions of the dawn-goddess with a young lover became popular in Etruria in the fifth century, probably inspired by imported Greek vase-painting. Though Etruscans preferred to show the goddess as a nurturer (Kourotrophos) rather than an abductor of young men, the late Archaic sculptural acroterion from Etruscan Cære (Cerveteri), now in Berlin, showing the goddess in archaic running pose adapted from the Greeks, and bearing a boy in her arms, has commonly been identified as Eos and Cephalus. On an Etruscan mirror Thesan is shown carrying off a young man, whose name is inscribed TINTHU[N].
Roman interpretation
Her Roman equivalent is Aurora. The Dawn became associated in Roman cult with Matuta; later known as Mater Matuta she was also associated with the sea harbors and ports. She had a temple on the Forum Boarium. On June 11, the Matralia was celebrated at that temple in honor of Mater Matuta; this festival was only for women in their first marriage.
List of consorts and children
The following are lovers of Eos, described in various myths, and her children by them.
Orion-killed by Artemis over jealousy
With Astraios-married
Boreas-north wind
Eurus-east wind
Notus-south wind
Zephyrus-west wind
Eosphoros-morning star
Hesperos-evening star
Phainon-Saturn
Phaethon-Jupiter
Pyroeis-Mars
Stilbon-Mercury
With Tithonus-kidnapped
Emathion
Memnon
With Cephalus-kidnapped
Phaëton
Tithonos
With Zeus
Ersa
Carae
Popular Culture
In the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, it is strongly suggested that the character Kara Thrace is the re-incarnation or at least enacts the role of the goddess Aurora / Eos as a fictional Lord of Kobol/ Angel in the service of a higher power.
Greek mythology | Greek goddesses | Solar goddesses | Titans | Divine women of Zeus
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