The Death of Hyperion in Diodorus

Canonical narrative

Diodorus introduces a tradition about peoples living on the Ocean shore of Libya. Uranus leaves many children, and his eldest daughter Basileia succeeds to royal power. Wishing for heirs, she marries her brother Hyperion, whom she loves. Their children are Helios and Selene, admired for beauty and character.

The brothers of Basileia become jealous and fear that Hyperion will divert the kingship to himself. They conspire and kill him. They then cast the child Helios into the river Eridanus and drown him. Selene, devoted to her brother, throws herself from a roof when the crime becomes known.

Basileia searches along the river until exhaustion overcomes her. In a vision Helios tells her not to mourn. The guilty Titans will be punished, while he and Selene will pass into immortal natures. What people had called the holy fire in heaven will bear the name Helios, and the heavenly body called mene will take Selene’s name. Basileia later disappears amid storm, thunder, and lightning and receives divine honors in the reported tradition.

This is not Hesiod’s genealogy with added detail. Eos is absent, the mother is Basileia, Hyperion is a royal husband who is murdered, and the Sun and Moon arise through posthumous transformation. Diodorus’s source frame and rationalizing interests must remain attached to the telling.

Episodes in this myth

Participants and roles

Source-scoped variants

Source witnesses