Hyperion (Titan)


In Greek mythology, Hyperion was one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus who, led by Cronus, overthrew their father Uranus and were themselves later overthrown by the Olympians. With his sister, the Titaness Theia, Hyperion fathered Helios, Selene and Eos. Keats's abandoned epic poem Hyperion is among the literary works that feature the figure.

Mythology

Hyperion's son Helios was referred to in early mythological writings as Helios Hyperion. In Homer's Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the Sun is once in each work called Hyperionides, and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other writings. In later Greek literature, Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios; the former was ascribed the characteristics of the "God of Watchfulness, Wisdom and the Light", while the latter became the physical incarnation of the Sun. Hyperion is an obscure figure in Greek culture and mythology, mainly appearing in lists of the twelve Titans:
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.
There is little to no reference to Hyperion during the Titanomachy, the epic in which the Olympians battle the ruling Titans.
As the father of Helios, Hyperion was regarded as the "first principle" by Emperor Julian, though his relevance in Julian's notions of theurgy is unknown.

Genealogy