Tithonus

Eos carried Tithonus, the Trojan prince and son of Laomedon, away to live with her in the eastern lands. His beauty had won her affection, and she made him her consort. She had already been united with the Titan Astraeus, but her bond with Tithonus was driven by her love for him and by her fear that death would one day separate them.

Eos went to Zeus and obtained immortality for Tithonus. She forgot to ask for eternal youth. Tithonus therefore continued to live as the years passed, but his body grew old and decrepit. The beauty that had first attracted Eos disappeared, and she became disgusted by his infirmities. At last, she shut him away in a chamber.

Little remained of Tithonus there except his voice. It had weakened into a feeble quaver. Some later poets say that he grew weary of his cheerless existence and begged to be allowed to die. Death was impossible because Zeus had granted him immortality. Eos pitied him and used her divine power to change him.

Eos herself rose from her couch at the close of every night. She drove her chariot across the horizon before the sun god, announcing the approach of her brother Helios. She was linked with the dawn and with twilight, and her palace was placed in the west on the island of Aeaea. Other accounts say that she carried off Tithonus among the young mortal men whom she desired, naming him as a son of Tros or Ilus rather than as the son of Laomedon.

Eos asked Zeus to grant immortality to Tithonus, the son of Laomedon, king of Troy. Tithonus had won her affection through his beauty, and Eos feared that death would separate them. Zeus granted the request, but Eos did not ask that Tithonus remain eternally young.

Time passed, and Tithonus grew old and feeble. His beauty disappeared, and age burdened his body. Eos became disgusted with his infirmities and shut him in a chamber. His strength and appearance faded until little remained of him except his voice, which had become a weak and trembling quaver.

Some later poets say that Tithonus grew weary of his cheerless existence and begged to be allowed to die. Death was impossible because Zeus had given him immortality. Eos pitied him and used her divine power to change his form. In this later tradition, she transformed Tithonus into a cicada and hung him in a basket. He continued to chirp endlessly, preserved from death but no longer living as a man.

A different later account links Tithonus with a consultation of the cicada itself. The cicada was treated as a being connected with the worlds above and below. The sources used for this account do not identify a single primary version that resolves the difference. It therefore remains distinct from the story in which Tithonus stays shut in a chamber and is reduced to a feeble voice.