Eos, Goddess of the Dawn
Eos was the Goddess of the Dawn. According the Hesiod and Homer she was the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister to Helios (The Sun) and Selene (The Moon). By Astraeus, Eos was mother to Boreas, Eurus, Zephyrus and Notus. By Tithonus she mothered Memnon. She may have also been mother to Heosphorus and the Stars.
By having an affair with Ares, Eos earned the wrath of Aphrodite, who turned her into a nymphomaniac. She may have also been a lover to Orion.
One of the more lamentable adventures of Eos involves the mortal Cephalus, whom she loved, despite the fact that he was married. When Cephalis married Procris, a favourite of the goddess Artemis, she had given him two gifts. The first was a spear which never missed it's target and a hound, clled Laelaps, who never lost the scent of his prey.
One day, in a jealous fit, Procris followed Cephalus into the woods while he was hunting, hoping to catch him with Eos. Eos however followed as well and stirred the bushes where Procris hid. Cephalus thought it was an animal and threw his spear, which of course could not miss, and killed Procris.
In another ill-fated turn at love, Eos fell in love with Tithonus, with whom she bore a son. Eventually Eos took him to Olympus and begged Zeus to make him immortal, which he did. Unfortunately for Tithonus, Eos forgot to ask that he also be made ageless. In time he withered away to nothing but a voice that haunted Eos.
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Image of Eos by Evelyn Pickering De Morgan, courtesy www.artcyclopedia.com
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