In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek Ēṓs, Attic Héōs, "dawn", or ; Aeolic Aúōs, Doric Āṓs) is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and disperse the night. In Greek tradition and poetry, she is characterized as a goddess with a great sexual appetite, who took numerous human lovers for her own satisfaction and bore them several children. Like her Roman counterpart Aurora and Rigvedic Ushas, Eos continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, Hausos. Eos, o
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Eos was the ancient Greek goddess of the dawn, who was believed to rise each morning from the edge of the river Oceanus to bring light and disperse darkness across the sky. She is notable in Greek tradition for her numerous romantic relationships with human lovers and for representing a continuity of much older Indo-European religious beliefs about a divine personification of dawn.
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Key facts
- Deity.type
- Greek
- Deity.name
- Eos
- Deity.image
- A terracotta lekanis dish depicting dawn eos on chariot with four horses eros a woman and a swan late 4th century metropolitan museum of art cropped detail eos.jpg
- Deity.image_upright
- 1.2
- Deity.caption
- Eos in her four-horse-drawn chariot, terracotta red-figure lekanis vase, late 4th century BC, Canosa, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Deity.god_of
- Personification of the Dawn
- Deity.script_name
- Ancient Greek
- Deity.abode
- Sky
- Deity.symbol
- Saffron, cloak, roses, tiara
- Deity.color
- Red, white, pink, gold, saffron
- Deity.animals
- Cicada, horse
- Deity.mount
Article
37 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- In Greek dialects
- Former proposals
- Origins
- Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess
- Connection to Aphrodite
- Description
- Family
- Parents
- Offspring
- Mythology {{Anchor|Eos in Greek literature}}
- Goddess of the dawn
- Homer and Hesiod
- Orphic literature
- Divine horses
- Lovers
- Tithonus
- Cephalus
- Role in wars
- Gigantomachy
- Trojan War
- Iconography
- Cult and temples
- Identifications
- Etruscan
- Roman
- Hemera
- Gallery
- Genealogy
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- Primary sources
- Secondary sources
- Further reading
- External links
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek Ēṓs, Attic Héōs, "dawn", or ; Aeolic Aúōs, Doric Āṓs) is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and disperse the night. In Greek tradition and poetry, she is characterized as a goddess with a great sexual appetite, who took numerous human lovers for her own satisfaction and bore them several children. Like her Roman counterpart Aurora and Rigvedic Ushas, Eos continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, Hausos. Eos, or her earlier Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ancestor, also shares several elements with the love goddess Aphrodite, perhaps signifying Eos's influence on her or otherwise a common origin for the two goddesses. In surviving tradition, Aphrodite is the culprit behind Eos's numerous love affairs, having cursed the goddess with insatiable lust for mortal men.
In Greek literature, Eos is presented as a daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, the sister of the sun god Helios and the moon goddess Selene. In rarer traditions, she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas. Each day she drives her two-horse chariot, heralding the breaking of the new day and her brother's arrival. Thus, her most common epithet of the goddess in the Homeric epics is Rhododactylos, or "rosy-fingered", a reference to the sky's colours at dawn, and Erigeneia, "early-born". Although primarily associated with the dawn and early morning, sometimes Eos would accompany Helios for the entire duration of his journey, and thus she is even seen during dusk.