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In Greek mythology, Tithonus was Eos' lover. He was a Trojan by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy.

Eos kidnapped Ganymede and Tithonus to be her lovers. Zeus decided he wanted the beautiful youth Ganymede for himself but to repay Eos he promised to fulfill one wish. She asked for Tithonus to be immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. Tithonus indeed lived forever but grew more and more ancient, eventually turning into a grasshopper, eternally living, but begging for death to overcome him. Some stories say that Eos turned Tithonus into a grasshopper or cicada.

Tithonus and Eos had two sons, Memnon and Emathion. Memnon later became King of the East, until he was killed by Achilles. Some mythographers say that Tithonus also had a mortal wife, named Cissia (otherwise unknown).

A poem on Tithonus is the 4th extant complete poem by ancient Greek lyrical poetess Sappho. The poem was published for the first time by Martin West in the Times Literary Supplement, June 21 (or 24) of 2005.

Contents 1 Poems 2 Cultural references 3 References 4 External links

• "Tithonus" by Alfred Tennyson was originally written as "Tithon" in 1833 and completed in 1859.^[1]

The poem is a dramatic monologue in blank verse from the point-of-view of Tithonus. Unlike the original myth, it is Tithonus who asks for immortality, and it is Aurora, not Zeus, who grants this imperfect gift. As narrator, Tithonus laments his unnatural longevity, which separates him from the mortal world as well as from the immortal but beautiful Aurora.

• "Tithonus" by Paul Muldoon was originally published in The New Yorker and included in the book Horse Latitudes (2006).

Aldous Huxley's novel, "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan" was titled after a verse from the Lord Tennyson poem "Tithonus."

An episode of the television show The X-Files was titled "Tithonus." It concerned a man who cheated Death, but eventually came to see his immortality as a curse rather than a gift.

• Sappho's poem
• Tennyson's poem