Hyperion (mythology)

In the Homer's Iliad and Odyssey the sun god is called Helios Hyperion, 'Sun High-one'. But in the Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the sun is once in each work called Hyperonides 'son of Hyperion' and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other places.

In later Greek literature Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios as a Titan, the son of Gaea 'Earth' and Uranus 'Sky' and the father of Helios 'Sun', Selene 'Moon' and Eos 'Dawn' by his sister Theia or Euryphaessa:

"Theia yielded to Hyperion's love and gave birth
to great Helios and bright Selene and Eos,
who brings light to all the mortals of this earth
and to the immortal gods who rule the wide sky."
(Hesiod, Theogony, 371-374)

The Titan Hyperion is the subject of Hyperion, an unfinished epic poem by John Keats






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