Source Verification: Eos
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Who are Eos's parents and siblings?
Her parents are the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Hesiod's Theogony names her siblings in the same breath: Helios, the sun, and Selene, the moon - the three lights of the sky born to the same couple.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony 371-374
Who are Eos's children?
With the Titan Astraeus, Eos is the mother of the cardinal winds: Boreas, the North Wind, Zephyrus, the West Wind, and Notus, the South Wind, along with the Morning Star. Hesiod's Theogony calls the wind-brothers 'the strong-hearted winds' in the same passage that names their parents.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony 378-380
What happened to Orion?
Calypso tells Odysseus that Eos fell in love with the hunter Orion and carried him off to be her companion, only for Artemis to kill him with her arrows on the island of Ortygia - the gods' standard response, ancient sources imply, to a goddess loving a mortal man.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 5.121-124
Why does Tithonus grow old forever without dying?
Eos stole him and asked Zeus to make him immortal, and Zeus granted exactly what she asked. Too late, she realized she had forgotten to ask for eternal youth as well, and Tithonus was left to age forever inside a body that could never die.
Source: Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 218-238
What does 'rosy-fingered Dawn' mean, and how often does Homer use it?
It is one of Homer's most repeated formulas, describing Eos's characteristic pink light at the moment of sunrise and used to open a new scene or a new day dozens of times across the Iliad and the Odyssey, including near the opening of the Iliad itself.
Source: Homer, Iliad 1.477
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 371-374
- Hesiod, Theogony 378-380
- Homer, Odyssey 5.121-124
- Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 218-238
- Homer, Iliad 1.477
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)