Hyperion (Greek
) is one of the twelve
TitanIn Greek mythology, the Titans , were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age...
gods of Ancient Greece, which were later supplanted by the
OlympiansThe Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. The first ancient reference of religious ceremonies for them is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes...
. He was the son of
GaiaGaia Gaia Gaia ( or ; "land" or "earth", from the Ancient Greek Γαῖα; also Gæa or Gea (Koine and Modern Greek Γῆ) is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth....
(the physical incarnation of Earth) and
UranusUranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos , the Greek word for sky. In Greek mythology Ouranos or Father Sky, is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth...
(literally meaning 'the Sky'), and was referred to in early mythological writings as
Helios Hyperion, 'Sun High-one'. But in the
Odyssey,
HesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars , agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE. Since at least Herodotus's time , Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often...
's
TheogonyThe Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC.-Descriptions:...
and the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter the Sun is once in each work called
Hyperionides 'son of Hyperion', and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other writings.
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Hyperion (Greek
) is one of the twelve
TitanIn Greek mythology, the Titans , were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age...
gods of Ancient Greece, which were later supplanted by the
OlympiansThe Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. The first ancient reference of religious ceremonies for them is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes...
. He was the son of
GaiaGaia Gaia Gaia ( or ; "land" or "earth", from the Ancient Greek Γαῖα; also Gæa or Gea (Koine and Modern Greek Γῆ) is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth....
(the physical incarnation of Earth) and
UranusUranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos , the Greek word for sky. In Greek mythology Ouranos or Father Sky, is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth...
(literally meaning 'the Sky'), and was referred to in early mythological writings as
Helios Hyperion, 'Sun High-one'. But in the
Odyssey,
HesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars , agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE. Since at least Herodotus's time , Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often...
's
TheogonyThe Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC.-Descriptions:...
and the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter the Sun is once in each work called
Hyperionides 'son of Hyperion', and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other writings. Hyperion is the titan of light and the greatest warrior under Cronus' command In later Ancient Greek literature,
Hyperion is always distinguished from
HeliosIn Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
- the former was ascribed the characteristics of the 'God of Watchfulness and Wisdom', while the latter became the physical incarnation of the Sun. Hyperion plays virtually no role in Greek culture and little role in mythology, save in lists of the twelve Titans. Later Greeks intellectualized their myths:
"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." —Diodorus SiculusDiodorus Siculus , was a Greek historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doing than is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca historica...
(5.67.1)
There is little to no reference to Hyperion during the
TitanomachyIn Greek mythology, the Titanomachy, or War of The Titans , was the ten-year series of battles fought between the two races of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titans, fighting from Mount Othrys, or Mount Etna and the Olympians, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus...
, the epic in which the Olympians battle the ruling Titans, or the Gigantomachy, in which Gaia attempts to avenge the Titans by enlisting the aid of the giants ("Γίγαντες") that were imprisoned in Hades to facilitate the overthrow of the Olympians.
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