Theia

Theia
Goddess of sight and brilliance
Member of the Titans
In the frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamon (Berlin), the goddess who fights at Helios' back is conjectured to be Theia[1]
Other namesEuryphaessa, Aethra, Basileia
Ancient GreekΘεία
AbodeSky
Genealogy
ParentsUranus and Gaia
Siblings
  • Briareos
  • Cottus
  • Gyges
Other siblings
ConsortHyperion
OffspringHelios, Selene, Eos

Theia (/ˈθə/; Ancient Greek: Θεία, romanizedTheía, lit.'divine', also rendered Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυφάεσσα, "wide-shining"), is one of the twelve Titans, the children of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus in Greek mythology. She is the Greek goddess of sight and vision, and by extension the goddess who endowed gold, silver, and gems with their brilliance and intrinsic value.[2]

Her brother-consort is Hyperion, a Titan and god of the sun, and together they are the parents of Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon), and Eos (the Dawn). She seems to be the same figure as Aethra, who is the consort of Hyperion and mother of his children in some accounts.[3] Like her husband, Theia features scarcely in myth, being mostly important for the children she bore, though she appears in some texts and rare traditions.

  1. ^ LIMC 617 (Theia 1); Kunze, pp. 916–917; Honan, p. 20.
  2. ^ Daly & Rengel 1992, p. 153.
  3. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae Preface.