Theia

Etymology

The name Theia alone means simply "goddess" or "divine"; Theia Euryphaessa (Θεία Εὐρυφάεσσα) brings overtones of extent (εὐρύς, eurys, "wide", root: εὐρυ-/εὐρε-) and brightness (φάος, phaos, "light", root: φαεσ-).

Mythology

Earliest account

The usual accounts gave her an equally primal origin, said to be the eldest daughter of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky).^[1] She is thus the sister of the Titans (Oceanus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Coeus, Themis, Rhea, Phoebe, Tethys, Mnemosyne, Cronus and sometimes Dione), the Cyclopes, the Hecatoncheires, the Giants, the Meliae, the Erinyes, and the half-sister of Aphrodite (in some versions), Typhon, Python, Pontus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Nereus, Eurybia and Ceto. By her brother-husband Hyperion she is the mother of Helios, Selene and Eos.^[2] Robert Graves also relates that later Theia is referred to as the cow-eyed Euryphaessa who gave birth to Helios in myths dating to classical antiquity.^[3]^[4]

Theia in the sciences

Theia's mythological role as the mother of the Moon goddess Selene is alluded to in the application of the name to a hypothetical planet which, according to the giant impact hypothesis, collided with the Earth, resulting in the Moon's creation, paralleling the mythological Theia's role as the mother of Selene.^[5]

Theia's alternate name Euryphaessa has been adopted for a species of Australian leafhoppers Dayus euryphaessa (Kirkaldy, 1907).

A Theia figure has been found at the Necropolis of Cyrene.^[6]

Genealogy

Theia's family tree, according to Hesiod's Theogony^[7]

THEIA

The Rivers

The Oceanids

Selene^[8]

Clymene (or Asia)^[9]

(Zeus)

Atlas^[10]

Prometheus^[11]

The Muses

The Horae

Notes

^ Hesiod, Theogony 132–138; Apollodorus, 1.1.3; Gantz, p. 10; Hard, p. 37; Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 133–137; Tripp, s.v. Theia; Grimal, s.v. Theia; Smith, s.v. Theia.
^ Hesiod, Theogony 371–374; Apollodorus, 1.2.2; Scholia on Pindar, Isthmian 5.2 (Drachmann, pp. 242–243); Gantz, p. 30; Hard p. 43; Morford, p. 40; Kerenyi, p. 22; Tripp, s.v. Theia; Grimal, s.v. Theia; Smith, s.v. Theia.
^ Graves, Robert (1960). The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. 42a. ISBN 978-0143106715.
^ Hesiod, Theogony 371-374; of "cow-eyed", Károly Kerényi observes, "these names recall such names as Europa and Pasiphae, or Pasiphaessa—names of moon-goddesses who were associated with bulls. In the mother of Helios we can recognize the moon-goddess, just as in his father Hyperion we can recognise the sun-god himself" (Kerényi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951, p. 192).
^ Murdin, Paul (2016). Rock Legends: The Asteroids and Their Discoverers. Springer. p. 178. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31836-3. ISBN 9783319318363.
^ Joyce Reynolds and James Copland Thorn (2005). "Cyrene's Thea figure discovered in the Necropolis". Libyan Studies. 36: 89–100. doi:10.1017/S0263718900005525. S2CID 192033455.
^ Hesiod, Theogony 132–138, 337–411, 453–520, 901–906, 915–920; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.
^ Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in Hesiod, Theogony 371–374, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), 99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 507–511, Clymene, one of the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, at Hesiod, Theogony 351, was the mother by Iapetus of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, while according to Apollodorus, 1.2.3, another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.
^ According to Plato, Critias, 113d–114a, Atlas was the son of Poseidon and the mortal Cleito.
^ In Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. 444–445 n. 2, 446–447 n. 24, 538–539 n. 113) Prometheus is made to be the son of Themis.

References

Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, Volume V: Books 10.420e-11, edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson, Loeb Classical Library No. 274, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99632-8. Online version at Harvard University Press.
Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2.
Catullus. The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus. Leonard C. Smithers. London. Smithers. 1894.
Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions from Ante-Nicene Library Volume 8, translated by Smith, Rev. Thomas. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 1867. Online version at the Theoi Project.
Daly, Kathleen N.; Rengel, Marian (1992). Greek and Roman Mythology, A to Z. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60413-412-4.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site.
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Drachmann, Anders Bjørn, Scholia Vetera in Pindari Carmina, Vol. III: Scholia in Nemeonicas et Isthmionicas. Epimetrum. Indices, Leipzig, Teubner, 1927. ISBN 978-3-598-71599-0. Online version at De Gruyter (1997 reprint). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Evelyn-White, Hugh, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
Graves, Robert; The Greek Myths, Moyer Bell Ltd; Unabridged edition (December 1988), ISBN 0-918825-80-6.
Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.
Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Homeric Hymn 31 to Helios, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Honan, Mary McMahon, Guide to the Pergamon Museum, De Gruyter, 1904. ISBN 9783112399330. Online version at De Gruyter.
Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Kerényi, Karl, The Gods of the Greeks. London, New York, Thames, and Hudson. 1951. ISBN 978-0500270486.
Kunze, Max, "Theia" in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) VII.1. Artemis Verlag, Zürich and Munich, 1994. ISBN 3-7608-8751-1.
Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-530805-1.
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.
Pindar, Odes, Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Plutarch, Moralia. 16 vols. (vol. 13: 13.1 & 13.2, vol. 16: index), transl. by Frank Cole Babbitt (vol. 1–5) et al., series: "Loeb Classical Library" (LCL, vols. 197–499). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press et al., 1927–2004.
Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Theia"
Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). ISBN 069022608X.
West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814169-6.

External links

[1] Hesiod, Theogony 132–138; Apollodorus, 1.1.3; Gantz, p. 10; Hard, p. 37; Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 133–137; Tripp, s.v. Theia; Grimal, s.v. Theia; Smith, s.v. Theia.

[2] Hesiod, Theogony 371–374; Apollodorus, 1.2.2; Scholia on Pindar, Isthmian 5.2 (Drachmann, pp. 242–243); Gantz, p. 30; Hard p. 43; Morford, p. 40; Kerenyi, p. 22; Tripp, s.v. Theia; Grimal, s.v. Theia; Smith, s.v. Theia.

[3] Graves, Robert (1960). The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. 42a. ISBN 978-0143106715.

[4] Hesiod, Theogony 371-374; of "cow-eyed", Károly Kerényi observes, "these names recall such names as Europa and Pasiphae, or Pasiphaessa—names of moon-goddesses who were associated with bulls. In the mother of Helios we can recognize the moon-goddess, just as in his father Hyperion we can recognise the sun-god himself" (Kerényi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951, p. 192).

[5] Murdin, Paul (2016). Rock Legends: The Asteroids and Their Discoverers. Springer. p. 178. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31836-3. ISBN 9783319318363.

[6] Joyce Reynolds and James Copland Thorn (2005). "Cyrene's Thea figure discovered in the Necropolis". Libyan Studies. 36: 89–100. doi:10.1017/S0263718900005525. S2CID 192033455.

[7] Hesiod, Theogony 132–138, 337–411, 453–520, 901–906, 915–920; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.

[8] Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in Hesiod, Theogony 371–374, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), 99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.

[9] According to Hesiod, Theogony 507–511, Clymene, one of the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, at Hesiod, Theogony 351, was the mother by Iapetus of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, while according to Apollodorus, 1.2.3, another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.

[10] According to Plato, Critias, 113d–114a, Atlas was the son of Poseidon and the mortal Cleito.

[11] In Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. 444–445 n. 2, 446–447 n. 24, 538–539 n. 113) Prometheus is made to be the son of Themis.

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