Editing Eos (section)

==== Tithonus ====
[[File:Julien Simon.gif|thumb|''Eos and Tithonus'', by Julien Simon, 1783, [[Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen]].]]

The myth about the love of Eos and [[Tithonus]] is very old, known as early as Homer, who in the ''Odyssey'' described the coming of the new morning as Eos rising from the bed she shares with Tithonus to bring her light to the world.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0218%3Abook%3D5%3Acard%3D1 5.1]: "And now, as Dawn rose from her couch beside Tithonos - harbinger of light alike to mortals and immortals." Trans. [[Samuel Butler (novelist)|Samuel Butler]].</ref> The earliest (and fullest) account survives in the ''[[Homeric Hymn]] to Aphrodite'', where Aphrodite herself narrates the story to her own lover Anchises. Additionally, the myth is also the subject of one of the very few substantially complete works of Sappho, pieced together from different fragments discovered over a period of more than a hundred years,{{efn|The first modern printing of the complete poem was published in two sections by Michael Gronewald and Robert W. Daniel in ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' vol. 147, pp. 1–8, and vol. 149, pp. 1–4 (2004); an English translation by [[Martin Litchfield West|Martin West]] is printed in the ''Times Literary Supplement'', 21 or 24 June 2005.  The right half of this poem was previously found in fragment 58 L-P.  The fully restored version can be found in M. L. West, "The New Sappho", in ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', vol. 151, pp. 1–9 (2005).}} known as the [[Tithonus poem]] or the Old Age poem:<ref name=":sapph">[[Sappho]], fragment [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/sappho-fragments/1982/pb_LCL142.101.xml?result=1&rskey=kNHZR2 58] [= Oxy. 1787 fr. 1. 4–25, fr. 2. 1 + fr. nov. (Lobel Σ. μ. p. 26)].</ref>

{{Blockquote|
...old age already (withers?) all (my) skin, and<br>
 (my) hair (turned white) from black<br>
] (my) knees do not carry (me)<br>
] (to dance) like young fawns<br>
] but what could I do?<br>
] not possible to become (ageless?)<br>
] rosy-armed Dawn [...]<br>
carrying (to) the ends of the earth<br>
] yet (age) seized (him)<br>
] (immortal?) wife.
|[[Sappho]], fragment 58.<ref name=":sapph"/>}}

The myth goes that Eos fell in love with and abducted Tithonus, a handsome prince from [[Troy]], either the brother or the son of King [[Laomedon]] (the father of [[Priam]]).<ref>Hansen, p. [https://archive.org/details/handbookofclassi0000hans/page/48/mode/2up?view=theater&q= 48]</ref> She went with a request to [[Zeus]], asking him to make Tithonus immortal for her sake. Zeus agreed and granted her wish, but Eos foolishly forgot to ask for eternal youth as well for her beloved. So for a while the two lived happily in her palace, but their happiness eventually came to an end when Tithonus’ hair started turning grey as he aged, and Eos ceased to visit him in their bed. Despite that, the goddess kept him around and nourished him with food and ambrosia; Tithonus never died as he had gained immortality as Zeus promised, but he kept aging and shrivelling, and was soon unable to even move. In the end, Eos locked him up in a chamber, where he withered away alone, forever a helpless old man.<ref>''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn]] 5 to [[Aphrodite]]'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0138:hymn=5 lines 220–318]; cf. [[Sappho]], fr. 58 Campbell; [[Mimnermus]], fr. 4 Gerber.</ref><ref>[[Clearchus of Soli]] fragment 20 [= [[Zenobius]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=JA9DAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA309 4.18].]</ref> Out of pity, she turned him into a small bug, a [[cicada]] (Greek {{lang|grc|τέττιξ}}, ''tettix'').<ref>Keightley, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=lWAEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA63 63]; [[Suda]], s.v [https://topostext.org/work/240#si.122 "Old Man Tithonus"].</ref><ref>[[Hellanicus of Lesbos|Hellanicus]] fragment 142 (FGrH) [= [[Scholia]] on [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=y5pxAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA64 3.151]; [[scholia]] on the ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg5026/tlg007/First1K-grc1/1.5.1-1.6.1 5.1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103132927/https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg5026/tlg007/First1K-grc1/1.5.1-1.6.1 |date=2023-01-03 }}.</ref>

In the account of [[Hieronymus of Rhodes]] from the third century BC, the blame is shifted from Eos and onto Tithonus, who asked for immortality but not agelessness from his lover, who was then unable to help him otherwise and turned him into a cicada.<ref>Tsagalis and Markantonatos, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sFA_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT297 297]</ref> [[Propertius]] wrote that Eos did not forsake Tithonus, old and aged as he was, and would still embrace him and hold him in her arms rather than leaving him deserted in his cold chamber, while cursing the gods for his cruel fate.<ref>[[Propertius]], ''Elegies'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0494%3Abook%3D2%3Apoem%3D18b 2.18b]</ref>

This myth might have been used to explain why cicadas were particularly noisy during the early hours of the morning, when the dawn appears in the sky.<ref>[[Loeb Classical Library]], ''Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Lives of Homer'', 2003,  [https://archive.org/details/homerichymnshome0000home/page/176/mode/2up?view=theater p. 177, note 48]</ref> Sir [[James George Frazer]] notes that there was a widespread notion among the ancient Greeks and other ancient peoples that the creatures that shed their skin renew their youth and get to live forever.<ref>See Frazer's note on [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.12.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022#note1 3.12.4]</ref> It could also be a reference to the fact that the high-pitched talk of old men was compared to a cicada's singing, as evidenced in a passage from the ''[[Iliad]]''.<ref name=":rh47">Hard, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA47 47]</ref> The ancient Greeks would use a cicada, the most musical of insects, sitting on a harp as an emblem of music.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16435670 | title = The Cicada | newspaper = [[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | date = 21 January 1928 | access-date = 7 June 2013 | page = 21 | publisher = National Library of Australia}}</ref> Cicadas were also believed to be able to survive off of dew alone, a substance closely associated with Eos.<ref name=":rh47"/>