Hyperion was a Titan of light, husband of his sister Theia, father by her of Helios the sun, Selene the moon, and Eos the dawn. His name signifies "the one who walks on high," and he was conceived as the elder solar power before the office of daily sun-driving passed to his son Helios. Homer occasionally uses Hyperion as an alternative name for Helios, blurring the distinction between father and son; but the proper genealogical position of Hyperion is one generation above the daily sun. He had no extended narrative beyond his fatherhood of the heavenly lights, and no significant cult.
Before thisTethys
Next on the wallTheia
Curator’s note
What the sources say, and what later tradition added. The sources for this bay
Hesiod, Theogony 134, 371–374. Homer's use of Hyperion as a name for Helios (Iliad 8.480, Odyssey 1.8) is one of several cases where Homeric usage and Hesiodic systematization diverge.
Kin in the sources
Each tie is quoted from the entry that states it.
- Consort ofTheia
husband of his sister Theia, father by her of Helios the sun, Selene the moon, and Eos the dawn
- Sibling ofTheia
Hyperion was a Titan of light, husband of his sister Theia
Parent ofHeliosfather by her of Helios the sun, Selene the moon, and Eos the dawn
Parent ofSelenefather by her of Helios the sun, Selene the moon, and Eos the dawn
Parent ofEosfather by her of Helios the sun, Selene the moon, and Eos the dawn
- Named as the same god asHelios
Homer occasionally uses Hyperion as an alternative name for Helios
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.