Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Tithonus, a man cursed with immortality, but not with agelessness, so that there was no limit to how frail and feeble he could become, deteriorating endlessly.

Let's get into it.

Barring people condemned to unending torture in Tartarus, perhaps no one, with the exception of Prometheus, suffered more greatly than Tithonus - be they man, monster, or god - and if he wasn't the person that endured the most suffering, he's certainly on a short list of top contenders. Life should have been joyous for him, as he started out with every advantage a person could hope for, being of well-bred stock, both royal and divine. Indeed, his pedigree was impeccable. Laomedon, king of Troy, was his father, and Strymo, daughter of the river Scamander, was his mother. You might remember Scamander from the Iliad. Achilles provoked Scamander's ire by clogging his waters with corpses, which culminated into a morbid, sodden dam that impeded his flow. Scamander then unleashed his might against Achilles, and were it not for other gods intervening, the hero would have been battered and drowned, left dead after the raging rapids had ceased their attack and receded. Another tie in with the Iliad was that Priam, who ruled as king of Troy, was Tithonus' younger brother. Now, you might think that Tithonus' plight was connected to the Trojan war, but this wasn't the case. He became ensnared in his predicament before the drums of war announced the imminent arrival of a 1,000 Greek ships slicing through the surf, set to punch their hulls into the sands of the Trojan coast.

Tithonus caught the eye of a goddess. She was called Eos - Aurora to the Romans - goddess of the dawn. Tithonus was said to have been exceptionally handsome, and his lean-muscled body and comely countenance caught Eos' eye. And since Greek mythology is absolutely rife with instances of beautiful women noticed by lecherous gods, peppering in a few mortal men to be preyed on seems only fair. Eos had garnered a wanton reputation, setting her sights on, then stalking, seizing, and whisking away handsome men. She abducted Cephalus, who desperately desired to be returned to his wife, but this enraged Eos, precipitating a series of events that led to the death of his wife at his own hands. Orion, the giant hunter, a character was also taken by Eos.

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