TITHONUS AND EOS! #BLOGCHATTERA2Z

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Eos and Tithonus - Mythology Planet

Tithonus was a prince of Troy, the son of King Laomedon and the naiad Strymo. Eos, the goddess and personification of Dawn laid eyes on him and fell in love with him. She kidnapped him from the royal house and began to live with him. They celebrated their love after which she rose from their bed in the early morning to deliver light to earth. They were very much in love and spent many happy hours together.

Eos was the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and her siblings were Helios, the sun god, and Selene, the moon goddess. Every morning, Eos would drive her two-horse chariot to provide light to the world, just before her brother, the sun, rose to complete the process. Sometimes, she would travel along with him from dawn to dusk.


                                                                                                    Eos - Wikipedia

Eos and Tithonus were so much in love that they wished to make this happiness eternal. Hence, Eos requested Zeus to grant Tithonus immortality, which he did. Tithonus would live forever and they would never be separated.

However, words play a significant role in life. When Eos asked Zeus to make Tithonus live forever, she did not mention eternal youth. As a result, Tithonus kept living on, but age began to catch up with him. As he grew old and decrepit, immortality turned into a curse, rather than a blessing. Eos did not desert him in his cold chamber, choosing to keep him in her embrace while cursing the gods, even when he began to babble, unable to speak any more due to extreme old age. Eventually, he turned into a cicada, living forever, craving the death which would never be his.

YouTube

Eos and Tithonus had two sons – Memnon and Emathion. Once again, Eos requested Zeus to make Memnon immortal, maybe using the right words this time. Her other son, Emathion, became the king of Aethopia, but was later killed by Heracles.

Trivia:

Phonetic pronunciation: Eos - [ɛːɔ̌ːs] ; Tithonus -  /tɪˈθəʊnəs/

The Tithonus Poem or the Old Age Poem/ the New Sappho by the Greek lyric poet, Sappho, was pieced together from papyrus fragments from over a hundred years and preserved for posterity.

Early reference to the Tithonus myth: Homer’s Hymn to Aphrodite

So also golden-throned Eos rapt away Tithonus who was of your race and like the deathless gods. And she went to ask the dark-clouded Son of Cronos that he should be deathless and live eternally; and Zeus bowed his head to her prayer and fulfilled her desire. Too simply was queenly Eos: she thought not in her heart to ask youth for him and to strip him of the slough of deadly age. So while he enjoyed the sweet flower of life he lived rapturously with golden-throned Eos, the early-born, by the streams of Ocean, at the ends of the earth; but when the first grey hairs began to ripple from his comely head and noble chin, queenly Eos kept away from his bed, though she cherished him in her house and nourished him with food and ambrosia and gave him rich clothing. But when loathsome old age pressed full upon him, and he could not move nor lift his limbs, this seemed to her in her heart the best counsel: she laid him in a room and put to the shining doors. There he babbles endlessly, and no more has strength at all, such as once he had in his supple limbs.

The most popular version is Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘Tithonus’, a haunting retelling of the original myth. 

Scribd

 It is a fact that cicadas are noisiest at dawn, which may have a bearing on the myth of Tithonus.

Art: Eos and Tithonus by Francesco de Mura (1698 - 1784)


Tithonus: The Curse of Eternal Old Age - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ztaGzEwO8

 This post is a part of Blogchatter A2Z Challenge 2026. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  



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