Editing Eos (section)

== Cult and temples ==
[[File:Painter of the Florence Stamnoi - Red-figure Stamnos with Eos and Two Youths - Walters 482034 - Detail A.jpg|thumb|Eos with two young men, red-figure [[stamnos]], ca 470–460 BC, now in the [[Walters Art Museum]].]]

Eos, along with her brother and sister, is an [[Proto-Indo-European|Indo-European]] deity, side-lined by the non-IE newcomers to the pantheon;<ref name=":burk"/><ref name=":ogd"/> James Davidson argues that apparently persisting on the sidelines was a primary function for them, to be the minor gods that the major gods were juxtaposed to, thus helping to keep the [[Ancient Greek religion|Greek religion]] Greek.<ref name=":ogd">Davidson in Ogden, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yOQtHNJJU9UC&pg=PA205 205]</ref> However, whereas her brother and sister did receive minor cults, and in Helios' case even major ones, Eos does not seem to have been the focus of any worship at all.<ref name=":brill" /> Thus there are no known temples, shrines, or altars to Eos. That being said, Ovid seems to allude to the existence of at least two shrines of Eos, as he describes them in plural, albeit few, in the lines:

{{Blockquote|‘Least I may be of all the goddesses the golden heavens hold – in all the world my shrines are rarest.’|title=[[Aurora (mythology)|Aurora]] to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]].<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/141#13.576 13.587 ff] (translated by Melville)</ref>}}

Although this could simply be an understated way for Eos to say that she has no temples or shrines whatsoever, nevertheless Ovid may therefore have known of at least two such shrines.<ref name=":181"/> However, if Eos did indeed have a handful of shrines and altars in ancient Greece or Rome, no knowledge of them remains.

The only traces of the goddess's worship can be found at [[Classical Athens|Athens]], where wineless offerings (or ''[[nephalia]]'') were made to Eos, along with other celestial gods and goddesses, including Eos's siblings Helios and Selene, as well as [[Aphrodite Urania]], [[Mnemosyne]], the [[Muses]], and the [[nymphs]].<ref name=":brill" /><ref>Meagher, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vBDfKCyC2LMC&pg=PA142 142 n. 137]; [[scholia]] on [[Sophocles]] ''[[Oedipus at Colonus]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=CflPAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA27 91].</ref> It is possible that the goddess addressed as Orthria and Aotis in a fragment by [[Alcman]] is Eos; this is highly debated, but if true, it could mean that Eos was worshipped in some capacity in [[Sparta]] during the Archaic period.<ref>[[Alcman]], ''PMGF'' 1.</ref><ref name=":181"/>