Hyperion

Hyperion was one of the Titans, a son of Uranus and Gaia, and the father of the three bright powers of the sky: Helios the Sun, Selene the Moon and Eos the Dawn. In Homer the name is also used for the sun god himself, so that the poet speaks of “Helios Hyperion.”

Hyperion’s Children

Hesiod says that Theia was subject to Hyperion in love and bore great Helios, bright Selene and Eos, who shines on all that are on the earth and on the immortal gods who live in the wide heaven (Hesiod, Theogony 371–374). Apollodorus gives the same three children, Dawn, Sun and Moon (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2). The Homeric Hymn to Helios agrees with Hesiod on the children, but names their mother Euryphaessa, whom it calls Hyperion’s own sister (Homeric Hymn 31.1–7). Elsewhere Helios is called “Hyperion’s son” or “the bright son of Hyperion” (Hesiod, Theogony 1011; Homeric Hymn to Demeter 26).

Hyperion and Helios

The sources use the name in two ways. In Homer, Hyperion is a title of the sun: Odysseus’ companions slaughter the cattle of “Hyperion Helios” (Homer, Odyssey 1.8), and the poet speaks of “Helios Hyperion” again in the story of those cattle (Odyssey 12.133, 12.374), and Zeus tells Hera that the exiled Titans Iapetus and Cronus, deep in Tartarus, do not enjoy the rays of “Hyperion Helios” (Homer, Iliad 8.480). Hesiod and the Hymns, on the other hand, distinguish the two: Hyperion is the Titan father and Helios the god of the sun who is his son.

Hyperion’s Family

Hyperion was one of the twelve Titans, the children of Uranus and Gaia whom Hesiod names in the Theogony: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion and Iapetus, and the Titanesses Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe and Tethys, with Cronus the youngest (Hesiod, Theogony 133–138). His brothers were therefore Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Iapetus and Cronus. Hesiod and Apollodorus make his wife his sister Theia (Theogony 371–374; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2), the mother of Helios, Selene and Eos.

Hyperion and the Titans

When Gaia, angry at the treatment of her children, persuaded the Titans to attack their father, all of them except Oceanus joined in, and Cronus cut off the genitals of Uranus with an adamantine sickle (Apollodorus, Library 1.1.4). Hyperion was therefore among the Titans who deposed Uranus and made Cronus king.

When Zeus later fought Cronus and the Titans, the war lasted ten years, and the defeated Titans were thrown into Tartarus and set under guard (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.1; Hesiod, Theogony 717–735). Hesiod does not single Hyperion out by name in the fighting. His children Helios, Selene and Eos, however, remained among the powers of the sky under the rule of Zeus.

Hyperion Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 133–138, 371–374, 717–735 and 1011; Homeric Hymn to Demeter 26; Homeric Hymn 31 (to Helios); Homer, Iliad 8.480 and Odyssey 1.8, 12.133 and 12.374; Apollodorus, Library 1.1.3–4, 1.2.1–2.

See Also: Titans, Uranus, Gaia, Helios, Selene, Eos, Theia, Coeus, Crius, Iapetus, Cronus