Theia

Deities of Greek Mythology
Primordial deities *Titans Olympians Sea gods	Chthonic deities Personified concepts *Others
Titans:
Metis Oceanus Iapetus Theia Mnemosyne Phoebe *Prometheus	Rhea Coeus Hyperion Themis Tethys Atlas

In Greek mythology, Theia (also written Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa ("wide-shining"), was a Titan. With her brother and husband Hyperion, she was the mother of Helios, Selene and Eos, the sun, moon and the dawn. The name Theia alone, means simply "goddess," Theia Euryphaessa with overtones of brightness.

Pindar praises Theia in his 5th Isthmian ode:

"Mother of the Sun, Theia of many names, for your sake men honor gold as more powerful than anything else; and through the value you bestow on them, o queen, ships contending on the sea and yoked teams of horses in swift-whirling contests become marvels".

She seems here a goddess of glittering in particular and of glory in general, but Pindar's allusion to her as "Theia of many names" is telling, since it suggests assimilation not only to similar mother-of-the-sun goddess like Phoebe and Leto, but perhaps also to more universalizing mother-figures like Rhea and Cybele.

In astronomy, Theia is the name of a hypothetical planetesimal that, according to one theory of the Moon's formation, collided with the Earth over four billion years ago. This impact destroyed Theia and threw massive quantities of ejecta into orbit around Earth, from which the Moon coalesced in a matter of months or days. Earth also gained significant amounts of angular momentum from the collision, as well as increasing its total mass to its modern level. See Giant impact theory.

According to this theory, Theia would have been approximately Mars-sized and struck Earth at a glancing angle. Little else is known about it. It was named after the mythological Greek Titan Theia (mentioned above), who gave birth to the Moon goddess Selene.

Theia is often called Orpheus.

Theia can also be a king of the Ostrogoths. See Teia