Hyperion (Titan)

Etymology

"Hyperion" derives from the Ancient Greek prepositon ὑπέρ (hypér) "above"; the name thus roughly translates to "the one above". In Homer it is often joined with "Helios" in the fashion of an epithet. There is a possible attestation of his name in Linear B (Mycenaean Greek) in the lacunose form ]pe-rjo-[ (Linear B: ]{{script|Linb|𐀟𐁊}}-), found on the [KN E 842 tablet (reconstructed [u]-pe-rjo-[ne]) though it has been suggested that the name actually reads "Apollo" ([a]-pe-rjo-[ne]).

Mythology

Hyperion is one of the twelve Titans, the children of Gaia and Uranus. In the Theogony, Uranus imprisoned all the children that Gaia bore him, before he was overthrown. According to Apollodorus, Uranus only imprisoned the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes but not the Titans, until Gaia persuaded her six Titan sons to overthrow their father Uranus and "they, all but Ocean, attacked him" as Cronus castrated him. Afterwards, in the words of Hesiod, Hyperion subjected his sister Theia to his love, and fathered three children with her, who became the lights of heaven: Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon), and Eos (Dawn). As is the case for most of the Titans, there are no myths or functions for Hyperion. He seems to exist only to provide a father for the three celestial deities. As a Titan, one of the oldest generation of gods, Hyperion was a fitting father for these three sky-gods who, as elements of the natural world, must have been conceived of as having come into being near the beginning of the cosmos.

Helios

Hyperion and Helios were both sun-gods. Early sources sometimes present the two as distinct personages, with Hyperion being the father of Helios, but sometimes they were apparently identified, with "Hyperion" being simply a title of, or another name for, Helios himself. Hyperion is Helios' father in Homer's Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. But in the Iliad and elsewhere in the Odyssey, Helios is also called "Helios Hyperion" with "Hyperion" here being used either as a patronymic or as an other epithet. In the Homeric epics, and in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, besides being called "Helios", Hyperion is sometimes also called simply "Hyperion". In later sources the two sun-gods are distinctly father and son. In literature, the sun is often referred to as "Hyperion's bright son."

Diodorus Siculus

According to the rationalizing historian Diodorus Siculus, Hyperion was the name of the first person to understand the movement of the sun and moon, and their effect on the seasons, and explains that, because of this, he was said to be their "father":

Diodorus also recorded an unorthodox version of the myth, in which Hyperion married his sister Basileia and had two children by her, Helios and Selene; their brothers, envious of their happy issue and fearful that Hyperion would divert the royal power to himself, conspired and killed Hyperion along with his two children (which then went on to transform into the Sun and the Moon), leaving Basileia in great distress.

Genealogy

Notes

References

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). .
• Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and Others, Loeb Classical Library No. 476, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1991. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume III: Books 4.59-8, translated by C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library No. 340. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1939. . Online version at Harvard University Press. Online version by Bill Thayer.
• Euripides, The Phoenician Women, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 2. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. .
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homeric Hymn 28 to Athena, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homeric Hymn 31 to Helios, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Mimnermus in Greek Elegiac Poetry: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, edited and translated by Douglas E. Gerber, Loeb Classical Library No. 258, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca; translated by Rouse, W H D, III Books XXXVI–XLVIII. Loeb Classical Library No. 346, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. Internet Archive.
• Pindar, Odes, Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Plato, Timaeus in Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Sommerstein, Alan H., Aeschylus: Persians, Seven against Thebes, Suppliants, Prometheus Bound, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein, Loeb Classical Library No. 145. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). .
• West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. .
• West, M. L. (2003a), Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, edited and translated by Martin L. West, Loeb Classical Library No. 497, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• West, M. L. (2003b), Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer, edited and translated by Martin L. West, Loeb Classical Library No. 496, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. . Online version at Harvard University Press.

References

1. Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.3 1.1.3].
2. [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:371-403 371–374]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
3. Tripp, s.v. Hyperion; Grimal, s.v. Hyperion.
4. See [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3D*(uperi%2Fwn Ὑπερίων] in ''An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon''.
5. Logozzo and Poccetti, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=llA_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA644 644]
6. "DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo". [[University of Oslo]]. Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas.
7. [[Robert S. P. Beekes. R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 118.
8. Herda, Alexander. (2008). "Apollon Delphinios – Apollon Didymeus: Zwei Gesichter eines milesischen Gottes und ihr Bezug zur Kolonisation Milets in archaischer Zeit". Internationale Archäologie.
9. [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D139 155]
10. [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
11. Gantz, p. 30; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA43 p. 43].
12. Hard, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA37 37], [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA43 43]; West 1966, pp. 36, 157–158 (on line 18).
13. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA37 p. 37].
14. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA32 p. 32]; Gantz, p. 30; Tripp, s.v. Hyperion.
15. Gantz, p. 30; [[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:12.153-12.191 12.176]; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:371-403 371–374], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1003 1011]; ''[[Homeric Hymn]]'' 2 ''to Demeter'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:1-39 26], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:40-86 74].
16. Gantz, p. 30. Helios called Helios Hyperion: [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.469-8.511 8.480], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:1.1-1.43 1.8], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:12.111-12.152 12.133], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:12.234-12.276 12.263], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:12.327-12.363 346], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:12.364-12.396 374]; called simply Hyperion: [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:19.387 19.398], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:1.1-1.43 1.24]; ''[[Homeric Hymn]]'' 3 ''to [[Apollo]]'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg003.perseus-eng1:349-396 369].
17. Gantz, p. 30; [[Eumelus of Corinth
18. ''[[Homeric Hymn]] 2 to [[Demeter]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D2%3Acard%3D1 26]; ''[[Homeric Hymn]] 28 to [[Athena]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0138:hymn=28 14]; [[Eumelus of Corinth]], ''Corinthiaca'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=UbswDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT62 frag 18]
19. [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#67 5.67.1].
20. [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html#57.2 3.57.2-8]
21. [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+132 132–138], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337 337–411], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+453 453–520], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+901 901–906, 915–920]; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.
22. Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+371 371–374], in the ''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn]] to Hermes'' (4), [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+4+99&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138 99–100], Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
23. According to [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+507 507–511], Clymene, one of the [[Oceanid]]s, the daughters of [[Oceanus]] and [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]], at [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+351 351], was the mother by Iapetus of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, while according to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D3 1.2.3], another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.
24. According to [[Plato]], ''[[Critias (dialogue). Critias]]'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg032.perseus-eng1:113d 113d–114a], Atlas was the son of [[Poseidon]] and the mortal [[Cleito]].
25. In [[Aeschylus]], ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.445.xml 444–445 n. 2], [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.467.xml 446–447 n. 24], [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.539.xml 538–539 n. 113]) Prometheus is made to be the son of [[Themis]].