This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

Hyperion (Greek Ὑπερίων) is one of the twelve Titan gods of Ancient Greece, which were later supplanted by the Olympians. He was the son of Gaia (the physical incarnation of Earth) and Uranus (literally meaning 'the Sky'), and was referred to in early mythological writings as Helios Hyperion, 'Sun High-one'. But in the Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the Sun is once in each work called Hyperionides 'son of Hyperion', and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other writings. Hyperion is the titan of light and the greatest warrior under Cronus' command. In later Ancient Greek literature, Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios - the former was ascribed the characteristics of the 'God of Watchfulness and Wisdom', while the later became the physical incarnation of the Sun. Hyperion plays virtually no role in Greek culture and little role in mythology, save in lists of the twelve Titans. Later Greeks intellectualized their myths:

"Of Hyperion we are told that he was the first to understand, by diligent attention and observation, the movement of both the sun and the moon and the other stars, and the seasons as well, in that they are caused by these bodies, and to make these facts known to others; and that for this reason he was called the father of these bodies, since he had begotten, so to speak, the speculation about them and their nature." —Diodorus Siculus (5.67.1)

There is little to no reference to Hyperion during the Titanomachy, the epic in which the Olympians battle the ruling Titans, or the Gigantomachy, in which Gaia attempts to avenge the Titans by enlisting the aid of the giants ("Γίγαντες") that were imprisoned in Hades to facilitate the overthrow of the Olympians.

[edit] External links

• Theoi Project - Hyperion