TITHONUS

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 1023 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: THE-TOO

TITHONUS , in Greek Iegend, according to

Homer

HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-191o)

son of Laomedon, king of Troy and husband of Eos (the morning). In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Eos is said to have carried him off because of his

great

GREAT

beauty. She entreated Zeus that he might live for ever; this was granted, but she forgot to ask
for immortal youth for him. He became a hideous old man; Eos then shut him up in a chamber; his voice " flowed on unceasingly," but his limbs were helpless. A later development is the

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

of Tithonus into a grasshopper, after Eos had been obliged to wrap him like a child in swaddling-clothes and to put him to sleep in a kind of cradle. He was probably associated with the Trojan royal

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, since the inhabitants of the

original

ORIGINAL

home

of the legend (probably central or northern

Greece

GREECE

) looked upon the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

, the land of the morning, as the

home

of Eos. In some versions she is said to have carried him away still farther

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

, to the land of Ethiopia near the ocean streams; this is euhemeristically referred by Diodorus Siculus to an expedition undertaken against Ethiopia by Tithonus, son of Laomedon.
It is probable that Tithonus was originally a sun-god ; the scholiast on Iliad, xi. 5, who calls him Titan, identifies him with Apollo, and there are many points of resemblance between him and the sun-god Helios. The story is generally regarded as an allegorical representation of the fresh morning sun dried up by the heat of the advancing day. Possibly it is merely intended as a warning to mortals not to unite with immortals, lest they incur the jealousy and wrath of the gods.
See

Homer

HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-191o)

, Iliad, xi. 1, xix. 237; Hymn in Venerem, 219 sqq., with Allen and Sikes's notes; Apollodorus iii. 12, 4; Diod. Siculus iv. 95;

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

, Odes, ii. 16, 3o; Propertius iii. to (18) ; O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, i. 313, n. 16, who attributes a Milesian origin to the story ; articles" Eos " by Rapp in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie and by Escher in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie.

End of Article: TITHONUS

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/THE_TOO/TITHONUS.html">
TITHONUS
</a>

(Previous)
TITHING (for tithe, tenth; Lat. decuma)

(Next)
TITIAN

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email