Tithonus

Tithonus was a Trojan prince, a son of Laomedon, whom Eos, the goddess of the dawn, carried off to be her husband. She asked Zeus to make him immortal but forgot to ask that he stay young, and so he grew endlessly old. He was the father of Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, who fought at Troy.

Tithonus’ Family

Homer makes Tithonus a son of Laomedon and a brother of Priam (Iliad 20.237–238). Apollodorus says that Laomedon’s wife was Strymo, daughter of the river Scamander, though some call her Placia or Leucippe, and that his sons were Tithonus, Lampus, Clytius, Hicetaon and Podarces (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.3). In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aphrodite says that Tithonus belonged to the Trojan royal family, the same as Anchises (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 218–219).

Eos and Tithonus

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite tells the story. Golden-throned Eos snatched Tithonus away, and she went to ask Zeus that he should be immortal and live for all days. Zeus granted her wish, but in her folly the lady Dawn did not think to ask for youth for him or to strip off deadly old age (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 218–224). While he was still in the flower of youth, he lived with Eos beside the streams of Ocean at the ends of the earth. When the first gray hairs fell from his head and chin, Eos kept away from his bed but looked after him in her house, giving him food, ambrosia and fine clothes (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 225–232). When hateful old age pressed on him altogether and he could neither move nor lift his limbs, she thought it best to lay him in a room and close the shining doors. “His voice flows on without end, but he has no strength such as he once had in his bending limbs” (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 233–238). Aphrodite tells it to Anchises to explain why she would not want him to be immortal in that way (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 239–246). In the same poem she tells, just before, how Zeus carried off another Trojan prince, Ganymede, to be cupbearer of the gods; Eos took only Tithonus (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 202–219).

Tithonus and the Cicada

The story that Tithonus became a cicada is told by Hellanicus in a fragment preserved by a commentator on Homer: Day (Hemera, that is Dawn) loved Tithonus, son of Laomedon and brother of Priam, and bore him Memnon; when he was worn out by his long life, the goddess changed him into a cicada (Hellanicus, fragment 142). The commentator gives this as the reason why Homer compares the old men of Troy, Priam’s kinsmen, sitting on the wall, to cicadas (Iliad 3.150–152).

Homer refers to the couple only as Dawn rising from the bed of Tithonus to bring light to gods and men (Iliad 11.1–2; Odyssey 5.1–2). In another version, Apollodorus says that Dawn, in love, snatched Tithonus away and brought him to Ethiopia (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.4). Diodorus rationalizes it: Tithonus made a campaign against the lands east of Troy and advanced as far as Ethiopia (Diodorus Siculus 4.75.4). Strabo says that Susa was said to have been founded by Tithonus, the father of Memnon (Strabo 15.3.2).

Tithonus’ Sons

Hesiod says that Eos bore to Tithonus bronze-helmeted Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and the lord Emathion (Theogony 984–985). Memnon came to help the Trojans, killed Antilochus, and was killed by Achilles (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.3; Diodorus Siculus 4.75.4). In the Aethiopis, as summarized by Proclus, Eos then obtained immortality from Zeus and gave it to her son. Strabo mentions a tomb of Memnon, son of Tithonus, near the mouth of the Aesepus in the Troad (Strabo 13.1.11). Emathion was later killed by Heracles on his way through Arabia (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11).

Tithonus Sources

Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 202–246; Homer, Iliad 3.150–152, 11.1–2, 20.237–238 and Odyssey 5.1–2; Hesiod, Theogony 984–985; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11, 3.12.3–4 and Epitome 5.3; Diodorus Siculus 4.75.4; Strabo 13.1.11 and 15.3.2; Proclus’ summary of the Aethiopis (Epic Cycle); Hellanicus, fragment 142 (in the Homeric scholia on Iliad 3.151).

See Also: Laomedon, Eos, Ganymede, Zeus, Priam, Memnon, Achilles, Heracles