Tithonus
mythological figure · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
in the texts
De legendis gentilium libris
Mythological figure granted extreme longevity, invoked as an inadequate measure beside eternal life.
But I, even if one should name the old age of Tithonus, or of Arganthonius, or of the longest-lived among us, Methuselah, who is said to have lived a thousand years lacking thirty, or should measure out the whole time since men have existed, will laugh as at the thoughts of children, looking to the long and ageless eternity, of which it is no more possible for the mind to grasp an end than to supp …
Theogony
A mortal man, consort of Eos, father of Memnon and Emathion.
And Eos bore to Tithonus brazen-crested Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and the Lord Emathion.
Hymn 5 to Aphrodite
Tithonus is Eos's mortal lover whose immortality becomes miserable because he continues to age.
So also golden-throned Eos rapt away Tithonus who was of your race and like the deathless gods.
And she went to ask the dark-clouded Son of Cronos that he should be deathless and live eternally;
There he babbles endlessly, and no more has strength at all, such as once he had in his supple limbs.