In Greek mythology, Hesperus ( /ˈhɛspərəs/ ; Ancient Greek : Ἕσπερος, romanized: Hésperos) is the Evening Star, the planet Venus in the evening. A son of the dawn goddess Eos (Roman Aurora), he is the half-brother of her other son, Phosphorus (also called Eosphorus; the "Morning Star"). Hesperus' Roman equivalent is Vesper (cf. "evening", "supper", "evening star", "west" [1] ). By one account, Hesperus' father was Cephalus, a mortal, while Phosphorus was the star god Astraeus. Other sources, however, state that Hesperus was the brother of Atlas, and thus the son of Iapetus. [2]
Hesperus is the personification of the "evening star", the planet Venus in the evening. His name is sometimes conflated with the names for his brother, the personification of the planet as the "morning star" Eosphorus (Greek Ἐωσφόρος, "bearer of dawn") or Phosphorus (Ancient Greek: Φωσφόρος, "bearer of light", often translated as "Lucifer" in Latin), since they are all personifications of the same planet Venus. "Heosphoros" in the Greek Septuagint and "Lucifer" in Jerome's Latin Vulgate were used to translate the Hebrew "Helel" (Venus as the brilliant, bright or shining one), "son of Shahar (Dawn)" in the Hebrew version of Isaiah 14:12.
Eosphorus/Hesperus was said to be the father of Ceyx [3] and Daedalion. [4] In some sources, he is also said to be the father of the Hesperides. [5]
Maurus Servius Honoratus, in his commentaries on Virgil's Eclogues , mentions that Hesperus inhabited Mount Oeta in Thessaly and that there he had loved the young Hymenaeus, son of Dionysus and Ariadne. Servius makes no distinction between the Evening Star and the Morning Star, calling them both Hesperus and the Lucifer of Ida. [6]
In the philosophy of language, "Hesperus is Phosphorus" is a famous sentence in relation to the semantics of proper names. Gottlob Frege used the terms "the evening star" (der Abendstern) and "the morning star" (der Morgenstern) to illustrate his distinction between sense and reference, and subsequent philosophers changed the example to "Hesperus is Phosphorus" so that it utilized proper names. Saul Kripke used the sentence to posit that the knowledge of something necessary (in this case the identity of Hesperus and Phosphorus) could be empirical rather than knowable a priori .
In Greek mythology, Celaeno referred to several different figures.
In Greek mythology, Anius was a king of Delos and priest of Apollo.
Corythus is the name of six mortal men in Greek mythology.
In Greek mythology, Iasion or Iasus, also called Eetion, was the founder of the mystic rites on the island of Samothrace.
Eurytion or Eurythion (Εὐρυθίων) was a name attributed to several individuals in Greek mythology:
In Greek mythology, Laertes was the king of the Cephallenians, an ethnic group who lived both on the Ionian Islands and on the mainland. He presumably inherited the kingdom from his father Arcesius and grandfather Cephalus. His realm included Ithaca and surrounding islands, and perhaps even the neighboring part of the mainland of other Greek city-states. Laertes was also an Argonaut, and a participant in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar.
In Greek mythology, Hesperis may refer to two separate characters:
In Greek mythology, an Oread or Orestiad is a mountain nymph. Oreads differ from each other according to their dwelling: the Idaeae were from Mount Ida, Peliades from Mount Pelion, etc. Myths associated the Oreads with Artemis, since the goddess, when she went out hunting, preferred mountains and rocky precipices.
In Greek mythology, Plexippus or Plexippos is a name that refers to:
In Greek mythology, Hippomenes, also known as Melanion, was a son of the Arcadian Amphidamas or of King Megareus of Onchestus and the husband of Atalanta. He was known to have been one of the disciples of Chiron, and to have surpassed other disciples in his eagerness to undertake hard challenges. Inscriptions mention him as one of the Calydonian hunters.
In Greek mythology, the name Butes referred to several different people.
In Greek mythology, King Lyncus of the Scythians was taught the arts of agriculture by Triptolemus but he refused to teach it to his people and then tried to kill Triptolemus. Demeter turned him into a lynx as punishment.
Phosphorus is the god of the planet Venus in its appearance as the Morning Star. Another Greek name for the Morning Star is "Eosphorus", which means "dawn-bringer". The term "eosphorus" is sometimes met in English. As an adjective, the word "phosphorus" is applied in the sense of "light-bringing" and "torch-bearing" as an epithet of several gods and goddesses, especially of Hecate but also of Artemis/Diana and Hephaestus. Seasonally, Venus is the "light bringer" in the northern hemisphere, appearing most brightly in December, signalling the "rebirth" of longer days as winter wanes.
Merope was originally the name of several characters in Greek mythology.
In Greek mythology, Cycnus or Cygnus was a king of Liguria, a beloved and lover of Phaethon, who lamented his death and was subsequently turned into a swan and then a constellation.
In Greek mythology, Androgeus or Androgeos was a Cretan prince as the son of King Minos.
In Greek mythology, Arethusa may refer to the following personages:
In Greek mythology, Eupalamus was an Athenian prince. There are two versions of his genealogy: Eupalamus was called (1) the son of Metion, and the father by Alcippe of Daedalus, Perdix and Metiadusa, wife of King Cecrops II or instead (2) the son of Erechtheus and possibly Praxithea, and became the father of Metion, father of Daedalus.
In Greek mythology, Metiadusa was a member of the Athenian royal family as the daughter of Prince Eupalamus and possibly Alcippe. She was probably the sister of Daedalus and Perdix. Metiadusa married King Cecrops II of Athens and became the mother of Pandion.
In Greek mythology, Palamaon was the Athenian father of Daedalus, the famous architect of Labyrinth. The latter was attributed to various parentage: (1) Eupalamus and Alcippe, (2) Metion and Iphinoe, (3) Phrasmede or (4) Merope, daughter of King Erechtheus.