You, children, be zealous for the
beautiful gifts of the
violet lapped Muses
and for the clear song loving lyre.
But my skin once soft is now
taken by old age,
my hair turns white from black.
And my heart is weighted down and my knees do not lift,
that once were light to dance as fawns,
I groan for this. But what can I do?
A human being without old-age is
not a possibility.
There is the story of Tithonos,
loved by Dawn, with her arms of roses
and she carried him off to to the
ends of the earth.
When he was beautiful and young.
Even so was he gripped
by white hairs of old age.
He still has his deathless wife.
Sappho, the oldest known image, from a sixth-century b.c.e vase.
The Crowning of Eos
Neptis Sappho
Rhododendron Sappho
Sappho Sparganura
Apache Cicada
The legend is, that when Eos the goddess of dawn was cursed by the goddess Aphrodite that she would fall in love a mortal, she became smitten by sweet-voiced Tithonos, the brother of Priam the king of Troy, and carried him away to be her lover.
Eos then successfully petitioned the gods to grant Tithonos immortality. As time went by, Eos realised that Tithonos had begun to age – perhaps because of the curse, she had forgotten to ask that he would be granted youth along with his immortality.
When Tithonos inevitably become feeble and old, his body shrivelled, and his beautiful young voice become cracked and shrill. Eos, then no longer able to bear the sight or sound of him any longer, locked him away in a chamber.
But the gods took pity on Tithonos, and turned him into a cicada – an insect the Greeks deemed immortal.
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