In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek Ēṓs, Attic Héōs, "dawn"; 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. She opened the gates of heaven for her brother Helios (the Sun), to pass through, and was imagined in poetry and art as a radiant, often winged goddess driving her horse-drawn chariot across the sky, bringing with her the colours and dew of morning.
In Greek literature, Eos is presented as a daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, the sister of Helios and Selene (the Moon). In rarer traditions, she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas. Each day she heralds the breaking of the new day and the arrival of Helios; although primarily associated with dawn and early morning, she is sometimes said to accompany him for the whole duration of his journey, and thus can also be seen near dusk. Her most common epithets in the Homeric epics are Rhododactylos, or "rosy-fingered", a reference to the sky's colours at daybreak, and Erigeneia, "early-born".
Eos also appears in Greek tradition as the mother, by Astraeus, of the Anemoi, the winds, as well as of several astral figures connected with the morning and evening sky. Like her Roman counterpart Aurora and the Rigvedic Ushas, she continues the name and character of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, Hausos.
A major group of myths concerns Eos's love for mortal men, whom she pursued and sometimes carried away in a manner more often associated with male gods and mortal women. In surviving tradition, this desire is explained as the work of Aphrodite, who cursed the goddess with passion for mortal men after Eos slept with Ares. Her most notable mortal lover is the Trojan prince Tithonus, for whom she secured immortality but not eternal youth, leading him to age forever. In another story, she carried off the Athenian Cephalus against his will, though she eventually let him return to his wife Procris.
Eos figures in many works of ancient literature and poetry, but despite her antiquity and Proto-Indo-European origins, there is little evidence of her having received extensive independent cult or being the centre of worship during classical times.
Etymology The Proto-Greek form of Ἠώς / Ēṓs has been reconstructed as *ἀυhώς / auhṓs. It is cognate to the Vedic goddess Ushas, Lithuanian goddess Aušrinė, and Roman goddess Aurora (Old Latin Ausosa), all three of whom are also goddesses of the dawn. Meissner (2006) suggested an áwwɔ̄s > /aṷwɔ̄s/ > lengthening for Aeolic and */aṷwɔ̄s/ > *āwɔ̄s > *ǣwɔ̄s > /ǣɔ̄s/ for Attic-Ionic Greek.
Lycophron calls her by an archaic name, Tito, meaning "day" and perhaps etymologically linked to "Titan".See "τιτώ" on A Greek-English Lexicon. Karl Kerenyi observes that Tito shares a linguistic origin with Eos's lover Tithonus, which belonged to an older, pre-Greek language.
In Greek dialects In Mycenaean Greek her name is also attested in the form in Linear B, a-wo-i-jo (Āw(ʰ)oʰios; reconstructed *Ἀϝohιος),Luján, Eugénio R. "Los temas en -s en micénico". In: Donum Mycenologicum: Mycenaean Studies in Honour of Francisco Aura Jorro. Edited by Alberto Bernabé and Eugenio R. Luján. Bibliothèque des cahiers de L'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain Vol. 131. Louvain-la-Neuve; Walpole, MA: Peeters. 2014. p. 68. found in a tablet from Pylos; it has been interpreted as a shepherd's personal name related to "dawn",Lejeune, Michel. "Une présentation du Mycénien". In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 69, 1967, n° 3–4. p. 281. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rea.1967.3800]; www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1967_num_69_3_3800Nakassis, Dimitri. "Labor and Individuals in Late Bronze Age Pylos". In: Labor in the Ancient World. Edited by Piotr Steinkeller and Michael Hudson. Dresden: ISLET-Verlag. 2015 . p. 605. .Davies, Anna Morpurgo (1972). "Greek and Indo-European semiconsonants: Mycenaean u and w". In: Acta Mycenaea, vol. 2 (M.S. Ruipérez, ed.). Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca. p. 93.Jorro, Francisco Aura. "Reflexiones sobre el léxico micénico" In: Conuentus Classicorum: temas y formas del Mundo Clásico. Coord. por Jesús de la Villa, Emma Falque Rey, José Francisco González Castro, María José Muñoz Jiménez, Vol. 1, 2017, pp. 307. . or dative form Āwōiōi.Chadwick, John, and Lydia Baumbach. "The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary". In: Glotta 41, no. 3/4 (1963): 198. Accessed March 12, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40265918.
Former proposals Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll offered a different (now rejected) etymology for , linking it to the verb , meaning "to blow", "to breathe."Stoll, p. 62
Origins Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess
All four of the aforementioned goddesses sharing a linguistic connection with Eos are considered derivatives of the Proto-Indo-European stem *h₂ewsṓs (later *Ausṓs), "dawn". The root also gave rise to Proto-Germanic *Austrō, Old High German *Ōstara and Old English Ēostre / Ēastre. These and other cognates led to the reconstruction of a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess, *h₂éwsōs.R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 492.
In the Greek pantheon, Eos, Helios and Zeus are the three gods that are of impeccable Indo-European lineage in both etymology and status, although the former two were sidelined in the pantheon by non-PIE newcomers.Burkert, p. 17 A common epithet associated with this dawn goddess is *Diwós Dhuǵh2tḗr, the 'Daughter of Dyēus', the sky god.; In Homeric tradition however, Eos is never stated to be the daughter of Zeus (, ), as she is instead the daughter of the Titan Hyperion, who plays little role in mythology or religion. Rather, a commonly occurring epithet of hers is , dîa, meaning "divine", from earlier *díw-ya, which would have translated into "belonging to Zeus" or "heavenly".West, p. 186
Eos's characterization as a lovestruck, sexual being who took many lovers is directly inherited from her PIE precursor. A common and widespread theme among Hausos's descendants is their reluctance to bring the light of the new day. Eos (and Aurora) is sometimes seen as unwilling to leave her bed in the morning, while Uṣas is punished by Indra for attempting to forestall the day, and the Latvian Auseklis was said to be locked up in a golden chamber so she could not always rise in the morning.
This Indo-European goddess of the dawn was often conflated and equated with Hemera, the goddess of the day and daylight. Eos might have also played a role in Proto-Indo-European poetry.
Connection to Aphrodite Eos also shares some characteristics with the love goddess Aphrodite connoting perhaps a semi-shared origin or influence of Eos/*Haéusōs on Aphrodite, who otherwise has a Near Eastern origin;Dumézil, 1934. both goddesses were known for their erotic beauty and aggressive sexuality, both had relationships with mortal lovers, and both were associated with the colors red, white, and gold.Cyrino, p. 24 Michael Janda etymologizes Aphrodite's name as an epithet of Eos meaning "she who rises from the foam [of the ocean]" and points to Hesiod's Theogony account of Aphrodite's birth as an archaic reflex of Indo-European myth. On the other hand, however, it is generally accepted that Aphrodite's name etymology is Semitic in origin, and its exact meaning and derivation cannot be determined. Evidence is also provided by an Italic red-figure krater in which Aphrodite is shown holding a mirror beneath a solar disc while the Theban hero Cadmus slays the dragon, with a female figure nearly identical to Aphrodite being depicted on another krater labelled "", or Aṓs, the dawn; this shows that although Aphrodite is assimilated to Astarte/Inanna, in Greek artistic tradition she is sometimes presented in a similar matter to Eos.
Like Eos, no tales of men assaulting Aphrodite exist, but there are many where she abducts mortal men reversing the traditional theme of gods and men pursuing maidens, in the same fashion as Eos.Ferrari, p. 54 Not only does Aphrodite abduct or seduce mortal men as Eos does, but even cites Eos's own adventures with Tithonus when she seduces Anchises.Nagy, p. 248 The two goddesses are presented as both maleficent and beneficent abductors, as they confer both death (maleficent) and preservation (beneficent) to their mortal lovers.Greene and Paxton, pp 47-52 The two goddesses exist almost side by side in the myth of Phaethon of Syria, with Eos as his mother and Aphrodite as his lover and abductor. Moreover, another telling point is how the name “Aoos” is recorded as both a name for Adonis, Aphrodite's East-originating lover, and a son of Eos by Cephalus (like Phaethon) who became king of Cyprus, an island that was regarded as Aphrodite's birthplace. This suggest a mixture of Mycenaean and Phoenician religions on the island; it is possible that Aoos was originally a generic name used for Eos's son or lover, which was then attached to Aphrodite in the form of a consort of the same name as she developed from Eos.
Description
Eos is usually described with rosy fingers or rosy forearms as she opened the gates of heaven for the Sun to rise:Nonnus: "Eos had just shaken off the wing of carefree sleep (Hypnos) and opened the gates of sunrise, leaving the lightbringing couch of Cephalus." (Dionysiaca 27. 1f, in A.L. Rouse's translation). the singer in the Homeric Hymn to Helios calls her (), "rosy-armed", as does Sappho,Homeric Hymn 31 to the Sun 5-6; Sappho P.Köln Inv. Nr. 21351.17. Sappho uses the Aeolic form , brodópakhus. who also describes her as having golden armsSappho, fragment 6 (trans. David A. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric I) [=Oxy. 2289 fr. 1 (a) + (b)]. and golden sandals;Sappho fragment 103 [= P. Oxy. 2294]. vases depict her rosy-fingered, with golden arms.
She is pictured on Attic vases as a beautiful woman, crowned with a tiara or diadem and with the large white-feathered wings of a bird. In Homer,Homer, Iliad viii.1 & xxiv.695 her saffron-colored robe is embroidered or woven with flowers.Homer, Odyssey vi:48 etc Mesomedes of Crete used for her, "she who has snow-white eyelids",Mesomedes, Hymn to the Sun 1 while Ovid described her as "golden".Ovid; Metamorphoses 7.700 ff, Fasti 4.713 ff The delicate and fragile beauty of her appearance seems to be in total contrast with the carnal nature that was often attributed to her in myth and literature.Bell, s.v. Eos
Family Parents
According to Greek cosmogony, Eos is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia: Hyperion, a bringer of light, the One Above, Who Travels High Above the Earth and Theia, The Divine,Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.2.2 also called Euryphaessa, "wide-shining"Homeric Hymn 31 to Helios, 4–7. and Aethra, "bright sky".Hyginus, Fabulae Preface Eos is the sister of Helios, the god of the sun, and Selene, the goddess of the moon, "who shine upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless gods who live in the wide heaven".Hesiod, Theogony 371–374 Out of the four authors that give her and her siblings a birth order, two make her the oldest child, the other two the youngest. In some accounts, Eos's father was called Pallas,Ovid, Fasti 4.373 ff.Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2.72 ff. who is also confirmed to be the father of Eos's sister Selene in some rare traditions.Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes 99–100 Even though the two goddesses are still connected as sisters in the traditions going with lineage from Pallas, their brother Helios is never included with them in those versions, being consistently the son of Hyperion. Mesomedes made her the daughter of Helios, who is usually her brother, by an unnamed mother. Some authors made her the child of Nyx, the personification of the night,Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 2.625–26; cf. Aeschylus, Agamemnon 265 who is the mother of Hemera in the Theogony.
Offspring