Her brother-consort isHyperion, a Titan and god of thesun, and together they are theparents ofHelios (theSun),Selene (theMoon), andEos (theDawn). She seems to be the same figure asAethra, who is the consort of Hyperion and mother of his children in some accounts.[3] Like her husband, Theia features scarcely in myth, being mostly important for the children she bore, though she appears in some texts and rare traditions.
The nameTheia alone (feminine form of θεῖος,theîos, "divine") is originally but anepithet; the proper nameEuryphaessa (Εὐρυφάεσσα) is composed from the adjectiveεὐρύς,eurýs, "wide" and the nounφάος,pháos, "light".
Once paired in later myths with her Titan brotherHyperion as her husband,"mild-eyed Euryphaessa, the far-shining one" of theHomeric Hymn to Helios, was said to be the mother ofHelios (theSun),Selene (theMoon), andEos (theDawn).[8]Gaius Valerius Catullus described those three lights of the heavens as "Theia's illustrious progeny" in the sixty-sixth of hiscarmina.[9]
Mother of the Sun, Theia of many names, for your sake men honor gold as more powerful than anything else; and through the value you bestow on them, O queen, ships contending on the sea and yoked teams of horses in swift-whirling contests become marvels.[10]
She seems here a goddess of glittering in particular and of glory in general, but Pindar's allusion to her as "Theia of many names" is telling, since it suggests assimilation, referring not only to similar mother-of-the-sun goddesses such asPhoebe andLeto, but perhaps also to more universalizingmother-figures such asRhea andCybele. Furthermore, a scholium on those lines wroteἐκ Θείας καὶ Ὑπερίονος ὁ Ἥλιος, ἐκ δὲ Ἡλίου ὁ χρυσός, "The Sun came from Theia andHyperion, and from the Sun camegold",[11] denoting a special connection of Theia, the goddess of sight and brilliance, with gold as the mother of Helios the sun.[12] Theia was regarded as the goddess from which all light proceeded.[13]
Plutarch recorded a fable-like story,The Moon and her Mother (which is sometimes categorized as anAesopic fable), where Theia's daughter Selene asked her mother to weave her a garment to fit her measure; the mother, who goes unnamed, then replied that she was unable to do so, as Selene kept changing shape and size, sometimes full, then crescent-shaped and others yet half her size, never staying the same.[14]
According to sixth century BC lyric poetStesichorus, Theia lives with her son in his palace.[15] In the eastGigantomachy frieze of thePergamon Altar, the figure of the goddess preserved fighting a youthful giant next to Helios is conjectured to be his mother Theia.[1]
An unorthodox version of the myth presented byDiodorus identified Theia asBasileia, meaning 'queen'. In this account Basileia was the eldest daughter of king Uranus, who excelled in prudence and rearer her own brothers, earning the epithet 'Great Mother' from them. She succeeded her father to the throne, and took her brother Hyperion to husband in order to produce heirs. With him Basileia had two children, Helios and Selene, both admired for their beauty and chastity. But Basileia and Hyperion's other brothers grew envious of their happiness and feared Hyperion would try to seize all the royal power for himself, so they killed Hyperion and threw Helios into theEridanus river, where he drowned. When Selene discovered that, she threw herself off the roof.[16]
Basileia meanwhile searched all over the river for her son's body, and fatigued she fell asleep. Helios then appeared to her in a vision and urged her to cease her mourning, for the brothers would have the punishment they deserved, while he and his sister "would be transformed, by some divine providence, into immortal natures," so that what known as the "holy fire" in the heavens would now be called Helios ("the Sun"), while "Mene" would be Selene ("the Moon"). When she woke up she recounted the dream and her woes to the common crowd that had gathered, asking them to give her dead loved ones the same honours as they did to gods. Then a frenzy overtook her and she grabbed her daughter's playthings and began to wander over the land. When she passed from sight, the people did as told and erected altars to her, and would pound kettledrums and cymbals to honour her.[16]
Theia's mythological role as the mother of the Moon goddessSelene is alluded to in the application of the name to ahypothetical planet that, according to thegiant impact hypothesis, collided with theEarth and created theMoon, paralleling the mythological Theia's role as the mother of Selene.[17]
Theia's alternate nameEuryphaessa has been adopted for a species of Australian leafhoppersDayus euryphaessa (Kirkaldy, 1907).
^Graves, Robert (1960).The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. 42a.ISBN978-0143106715.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Hesiod,Theogony371-374; of"cow-eyed",Károly Kerényi observes, "these names recall such names asEuropa andPasiphae, or Pasiphaessa—names of moon-goddesses who were associated withbulls. In the mother of Helios we can recognize the moon-goddess, just as in his fatherHyperion we can recognise the sun-god himself" (Kerényi,The Gods of the Greeks, 1951, p. 192).
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as inHesiod,Theogony371–374, in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes (4),99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
Evelyn-White, Hugh,TheHomeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Grimal, Pierre,The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996.ISBN978-0-631-20102-1.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon,Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007.ISBN978-0-19-530805-1.
Pindar,The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
