Hyperion (Titan) Explained

Type:	Greek
Hyperion
Member Of:	the Titans
Script Name:	Ancient Greek
Script:	Ὑπερίων
Battles:	Titanomachy
Consort:	Theia
Parents:	Uranus and Gaia
Offspring:	Helios, Eos and Selene

In Greek mythology, Hyperion (; Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ὑπερίων, 'he who goes before')^[1] was one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky).^[2] With his sister, the Titaness Theia, Hyperion fathered Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn).^[3]

Hyperion was, along with his son Helios, a personification of the sun, with the two sometimes identified.^[4] John Keats's abandoned epic poem Hyperion is among the literary works that feature the figure.

Etymology

"Hyperion" means "he that walks on high" or simply "the god above", often joined with "Helios".^[5] There is a possible attestation of his name in Linear B (Mycenaean Greek) in the lacunose form ]pe-rjo-['' (Linear B: ]{{script|Linb|-[), found on the [[Knossos|KN]] E 842 tablet (reconstructed [u]-pe-rjo-[ne])^[6] though it has been suggested that the name actually reads "Apollo" ([a]-pe-rjo-[ne]).^{[7] [8]}

Mythology

Hyperion is one of the twelve or thirteen Titans, the children of Gaia and Uranus. In the Theogony, Uranus imprisoned all the children that Gaia bore him, before he was overthrown.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[11] He seems to exist only to provide a father for the three celestial deities.^[12] 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.^[13]

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.^[14] Hyperion is Helios' father in Homer's Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.^[15] 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".^[16] In later sources the two sun-gods are distinctly father and son.^[17] In literature, the sun is often referred to as "Hyperion's bright son."^[18]

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":

Of Hyperion we are told that he was the first to understand, by diligent attention and observation, the movement of both the sun and the moon and the other stars, and the seasons as well, in that they are caused by these bodies, and to make these facts known to others; and that for this reason he was called the father of these bodies, since he had begotten, so to speak, the speculation about them and their nature.^[19]

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.^[20]

In popular culture

• Hyperion, one of the moons of Saturn, is named after the titan. Saturn itself is named after the Roman equivalent of Hyperion's brother Cronus, Saturnus.
• Hyperion Records is a British classical label founded in 1980 and acquired by UMG in 2023, known for their recordings of Romantic piano concertos.

See also

• List of solar deities

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.
• Book: Keightley, Thomas . The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy . G. Bell and Sons . 1877 .
• 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.
• Book: Morford, Mark P. O. . Classical Mythology . Lenardon, Robert J. . 1999 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-514338-6 .
• 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.

External links

• HYPERION from The Theoi Project
• HYPERION from greekmythology.com
• HYPERION from Mythopedia

Notes and References

1. Grimal, s.v. Hyperion; Smith, s.v. Hyperion.
2. Grimal, s.v. Hyperion; Tripp, s.v. Hyperion; Morford, p. 40; Keightley, p. 47; Smith, s.v. Hyperion; Hesiod, Theogony 131 - 136; Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter, 26, 74; Apollodorus, 1.1.3.
3. [Hesiod]
4. Tripp, s.v. Hyperion; Grimal, s.v. Hyperion.
5. See Ὑπερίων in An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon.
6. Logozzo and Poccetti, p. 644
7. [Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]
8. Internationale Archäologie. Apollon Delphinios – Apollon Didymeus: Zwei Gesichter eines milesischen Gottes und ihr Bezug zur Kolonisation Milets in archaischer Zeit. Alexander. Herda. 16. 2008. Arbeitsgemeinschaft, Symposium, Tagung, Kongress. Band 11: Kult(ur)kontakte. Apollon in Milet/Didyma, Histria, Myus, Naukratis und auf Zypern. Akten des Table Ronde in Mainz vom 11.–12. März 2004. de. 978-3-89646-441-5.
9. [Hesiod]
10. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
11. Gantz, p. 30; Hard, p. 43.
12. Hard, pp. 37, 43; West 1966, pp. 36, 157 - 158 (on line 18).
13. Hard, p. 37.
14. Hard, p. 32; Gantz, p. 30; Tripp, s.v. Hyperion.
15. Gantz, p. 30; Homer, Odyssey 12.176; Hesiod, Theogony 371 - 374, 1011; Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter, 26, 74.
16. Gantz, p. 30. Helios called Helios Hyperion: Homer, Iliad 8.480, Odyssey 1.8, 12.133, 12.263, 346, 374; called simply Hyperion: Homer, Iliad 19.398, 1.24; Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo, 369.
17. Gantz, p. 30; Eumelus fr. 17 West; Mimnermus fr. 12 Gerber; Stesichorus fr. S 17 Campbell [= 185 ''[[Poetae Melici Graeci]]]; Pindar, Olympian 7.39.
18. Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter 26; Homeric Hymn 28 to Athena 14; Eumelus of Corinth, Corinthiaca frag 18
19. [Diodorus Siculus]
20. [Diodorus Siculus]