Coeus was a Titan of the first generation, son of Uranus and Gaia, brother of Cronus and the rest. By his sister-wife Phoebe he begot Asteria and Leto; through Leto he was grandfather to Apollo and Artemis. His name connects him with the Greek root for "questioning" or "intelligence"; some have interpreted him as a Titan of the celestial pole or axis, but the evidence is thin. He was imprisoned in Tartarus after the Titanomachy.
Before thisIapetus
Next on the wallPhoebe
Curator’s note
What the sources say, and what later tradition added. The sources for this bay
Hesiod, Theogony 134, 404–410. Coeus is principally a genealogical figure with no extended myth.
Kin in the sources
Each tie is quoted from the entry that states it.
Child ofUranusson of Uranus and Gaia, brother of Cronus and the rest
Child ofGaiason of Uranus and Gaia, brother of Cronus and the rest
Sibling ofCronusson of Uranus and Gaia, brother of Cronus and the rest
- Consort ofPhoebe
By his sister-wife Phoebe he begot Asteria and Leto
- Sibling ofPhoebe
By his sister-wife Phoebe he begot Asteria and Leto
Parent ofAsteriaBy his sister-wife Phoebe he begot Asteria and Leto
Parent ofLetoBy his sister-wife Phoebe he begot Asteria and Leto
When the sources speak
Dated witnesses for The Titans and Their Children. A date marks when the evidence was written down, not when the belief began. The whole timeline
- c. 1600–1100 BCE
- Mycenaean palace tablets in Linear B record offerings and divine names, but little continuous myth.
- c. 1100–800 BCE
- Post-palatial oral traditions and changing cult landscapes precede the surviving alphabetic epics.
- late 8th–7th centuries BCE
- The Iliad, Odyssey, Hesiodic Theogony and Works and Days give influential but non-exclusive divine orders.
- 7th–6th centuries BCE
- Homeric Hymns, lyric poetry, colonization, and local sanctuary traditions multiply regional narratives.
- 6th–5th centuries BCE
- Orphic, Pythagorean, and mystery materials develop alternative cosmogonies and afterlife doctrines.
- 5th century BCE
- Athenian tragedy and comedy recast heroic houses and divine justice for civic audiences.
- 4th century BCE
- Philosophers, antiquarians, and local historians interpret or criticize inherited myth.
- 323–31 BCE
- Hellenistic poets and scholars systematize variants across an enlarged Greek world.