Tithonus

British  

/ tɪˈθəʊnəs /

noun

1. Greek myth the son of Laomedon of Troy who was loved by the goddess Eos. She asked that he be made immortal but forgot to ask that he be made eternally young. When he aged she turned him into a grasshopper

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Example Sentences

When the Greek goddess Eos asked the gods to grant her mortal lover Tithonus eternal life, she neglected to add a necessary codicil to the celestial contract — that he have eternal youth as well.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 7, 2019

The ancient Greeks — who, by the way, are all dead now — sang a particularly harrowing tale of Tithonus.

From Washington Post • Jan. 23, 2018

Decrepit, senile, and miserable, Tithonus eventually shrank into a cicada who stridulated ceaselessly, calling out for release.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 27, 2017

In that text, the poem ends after the sixth couplet, with its glum reference to Tithonus being seized by gray old age.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 9, 2015

This Tithonus, the husband of Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn, was the father of her son, the dark-skinned prince Memnon of Ethiopia who was killed at Troy, fighting for the Trojans.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton