Hyperion (mythology)

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This article is about Hyperion, a Titan in Greek mythology. For other uses, see Hyperion.
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Olympians
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Personified concepts
Other deities
Titans
The Twelve Titans:
Oceanus and Tethys,
Hyperion and Theia,
Coeus and Phoebe,
Cronus and Rhea,
Mnemosyne, Themis,
Crius, Iapetus
Children of Hyperion:
Eos, Helios, Selene
Daughters of Coeus:
Leto and Asteria
Sons of Iapetus:
Atlas, Prometheus,
Epimetheus, Menoetius

Hyperion (Greek Ὑπερίων) is a Titan, the son of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Heaven), Helios Hyperion, 'Sun High-one'. But in the Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony 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 places. In later Greek literature, Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios. 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 Siculus (5.67.1)

[edit] Fiction inspired by or connected to Hyperion

  • In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet compares his father (the late Old Hamlet) to Hyperion and his usurping uncle Claudius to a satyr: "Hyperion to a satyr," (Act I Scene II). Hyperion is mentioned again in Act 3, Scene 4.

[edit] External links