- Looks after
- The dawn
- Roman name
- Aurora
- Often shown with
- Wings, a saffron robe, a chariot.
Eos
Ἠώς
Eos is the dawn, who opens the gates of day with rosy fingers.
Eos is the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister of Helios and Selene. Homer's formula for her is rosy-fingered Dawn. She rises from the edge of Oceanus each morning, ahead of Helios, to announce the day.
She had many lovers among the mortals. With Astraeus she bore the winds and the stars. She carried off the Trojan prince Tithonus and asked Zeus to make him immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youth, and he shrivelled with age until she turned him into a cicada. Their son was Memnon, the Ethiopian king killed by Achilles at Troy, for whom she wept, and her tears are said to be the morning dew.
Eos has little cult. She is, though, one of the most frequently depicted goddesses in vase painting, often shown pursuing a young man.
In later art and language
Eosin, a red dye, was named for her in the 1870s.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 371-382
- Homer, Odyssey 2.1
- Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite, 218-238