Perses was a Titan of the second generation, son of Crius and Eurybia, brother of Astraeus and Pallas. By his cousin Asteria (daughter of Coeus and Phoebe) he was father of Hecate, the great goddess of crossroads, witchcraft, and the moon. His name signifies "the destroyer," but his role in the surviving mythology is almost wholly genealogical, as the father of his much more prominent daughter.
Before thisPallas (Titan)
Next on the wallMetis
Curator’s note
What the sources say, and what later tradition added. The sources for this bay
Hesiod, Theogony 376, 409–411.
Kin in the sources
Each tie is quoted from the entry that states it.
Child ofCriusson of Crius and Eurybia, brother of Astraeus and Pallas
Child ofEurybiason of Crius and Eurybia, brother of Astraeus and Pallas
Sibling ofAstraeusson of Crius and Eurybia, brother of Astraeus and Pallas
- Sibling ofPallas (Titan)
son of Crius and Eurybia, brother of Astraeus and Pallas
Consort ofAsteriaBy his cousin Asteria (daughter of Coeus and Phoebe) he was father of Hecate
Parent ofHecateBy his cousin Asteria (daughter of Coeus and Phoebe) he was father of Hecate
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.