Cephalus of Athens

By some accounts described in Greek mythology, Cephalus (/ˈsɛfələs/; Ancient Greek: Κέφαλος Kephalos was an Athenian son of Hermes and Herse. His great beauty caused Eos (goddess of the dawn) to fall in love with him. He was eventually carried off and ravished by her in Syria.[1] Consorting with the goddess, by some accounts Cephalus became the father of Tithonus, the father of Phaethon.[2] In some accounts, he was the son of Hermes by Creusa[3] or of Pandion[4] while Phaeton was said to be his son instead of Tithonus.[5]

For other uses, see Cephalus.

On the pediment of the kingly Stoa in the Cerameicus at Athens, and on the temple of Apollo at Amyclae, the carrying off of Cephalus by Hemera (not Eos) was represented.[6] According to a single myth, Eosphorus was also called the son of Cephalus and Eos.[7]

Notes

1. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 11.390
2. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.14.3
3. Hyginus, Fabulae 160
4. Hyginus, Fabulae 270
5. Hesiod, Theogony 986
6. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.3.1
7. Hyginus, Astronomica 2.42.4

References

• Gaius Julius Hyginus, Astronomica 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.
• Gaius Julius Hyginus, 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.
• Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.