The event Eos had feared finally came to pass: the cursed Dawn Goddess fell in love with a mortal.
Tithonus, son of King Laomedon and Strymo, was a handsome and beautiful youth. His elder brother, Priam, was recognized by the subjects as the next king. Tithonus, free from responsibility, grew up doted upon by his parents, his daily task being only to tend his father's sheep.
Carefree Tithonus frolicked in nature all day, and his innocence attracted the Dawn Goddess, who parted the gates of heaven.
Eos transformed into a beautiful human maiden, clinging to the young Tithonus day and night, becoming inseparable companions. To Eos's sorrow, Tithonus did not understand the nature of romantic love between men and women. He merely found the goddess to be a congenial playmate and confidante.
Tithonus could share any secret with Eos, yet he did not feel the maiden before him was more important than his sheep.
The Dawn Goddess was different. Tithonus was her dearest love. She spent her days playing with the youth, listening to his sorrows and joys, utterly lost in her affection.
Thus, a period of time, neither short nor long, passed. Tithonus remained joyful, but a genuine happiness was absent from the smiles on Eos's face.
This inexplicable love was a terrible curse. The Dawn Goddess's sorrow deepened with each passing day. She loved Tithonus so much that she dared not imagine losing him one day. Human lifespans were so brief, and the arrival of death was inevitable. She pleaded with her sister, the Moon Goddess Selene, who guided souls to the underworld, to show mercy, but only received a stern reprimand.
Immortality was a characteristic of the gods; mortals could not possess such a privilege.
The Dawn Goddess, blinded by love, approached Zeus, the King of the Gods, and begged him to grant Tithonus immortality.
The King of Gods sternly refused this unreasonable request. However, Eos did not give up. She wept and pleaded with Zeus, her despairing voice moving all the gods.
Aphrodite, who had cast the curse, felt immense guilt. She rose and pleaded with the King of Gods to fulfill this love, "Majestic King of Gods, please grant Eos's request, for the sake of their true love."
After speaking, the Goddess of Love subtly used her authority to stir compassion in the gods for the Dawn Goddess. With the unanimous pleas of the gods, Zeus was finally moved. He instructed Nike, the Goddess of Victory who guarded the golden apples, to pluck a fruit from the tree and give it to the Dawn Goddess. Unfortunately, the golden apple on the tree had not yet ripened. Such a fruit could only free a mortal from the threat of death, but could not keep Eos's lover eternally youthful.
Elated, Eos, unaware of these details, eagerly returned to Tithonus and gave him the golden apple to eat. She believed she was about to possess perfect happiness. Every dawn, Eos would come to her lover's side to accompany him. She sat beside Tithonus, listening to her beloved describe everything he saw in his gentle voice – newborn lambs, the breeze rustling through his hair, clouds obscuring the stars at night...
Eos felt this life was as blissful as a dream. As months and years passed, the goddess noticed Tithonus's hair losing its luster, gray gradually replacing brown, and it began to thin and fall out. His smooth skin was now etched with wrinkles, and his once captivating clear eyes became clouded.
Tithonus's voice was no longer clear. His hoarse throat could no longer sing beautiful songs. This filled Eos with terror. Geras, the goddess of old age and aging, quietly visited the mortal favored by the Dawn Goddess and took away his prime years.
Eos wept as she embraced her lover. Tithonus's once strong body began to shrink and wither. His upright posture turned into a hunchback, and his frail bones could no longer support him. He could only curl up in Eos's arms to be fed. This suffering stripped him of his remaining dignity. The departure of his loved ones had already tormented him, and he could no longer endure. Tithonus used his last strength to beg Eos for release, but the magic of the golden apple could only return Tithonus's soul to his withered body.
After this repeated several times, Tithonus, tormented beyond measure, shut down his consciousness, no longer responding to external stimuli.
Unable to bear seeing her lover suffer any longer, Eos begged her sister Selene to take Tithonus's soul to the underworld. However, the Moon Goddess shook her head helplessly, stating she could not do it. "The power of the golden apple is linked to the mortal's incomplete divinity inherited from the Titans! Ancient divine blood flows through the children of seers and those who come after. His soul is bound to the divine blood within his body, inseparable."
Seeing the emaciated, hunched body in her sister's arms, Selene could not understand Eos's persistence. She asked, "Noble goddess, inheritor of a radiant bloodline, this mortal is not worth such suffering for you. If you wish to pass the time, why not find a more handsome companion for yourself?"
Eos, her eyes vacant, embraced the unrecognizable form of Tithonus, not heeding her sister's concern. She breathed a sigh onto her ever-shrinking beloved, transforming Tithonus into a cricket free from sorrow. This happy insect chirped like a song, flew from the Dawn Goddess's hands, and disappeared into the grass.
Selene comforted her distressed sister, her confusion deepening. Unbeknownst to her, her interference would also cause the pure Moon Goddess to fall into the thorns of love and suffer.
Disheartened, Eos returned to her temple in the eastern mountains. It would take her a long time to recover from this pain.
Selene, filled with uncomprehending thoughts, returned to her moon chariot. The Moon Goddess cast her cool moonlight to guide the souls wandering the earth. The deceased, on their way to the underworld, always felt fear, but the serene moonlight would calm their unease, allowing them to peacefully proceed to the Stygian realm in the darkness.
As Selene sped across the night sky, surveying the earth, the sleeping youth in the valley caught her eye. Under the influence of love's power, the goddess uncontrollably approached the youth. The youth slept on the grass, utterly undisturbed by the sorrows and worries of the mortal world. Selene could not resist kissing his cheek. The sleeping youth opened his eyes warily, only to see the receding back of a woman shrouded in moonlight.
The youth, Endymion, was the son of the nymph Kalyke and Aetlius, the leader of the city-state of Elis. He believed it to be a hallucination. During a conversation with his mother, he unintentionally recounted this beautiful dream as a story. However, the nymph Kalyke did not believe her son's experience was illusory. She instructed her son to return to that valley and await the goddess's arrival, specifically preparing a decoction of herbs that concealed one's aura for him to drink.
In a daze, Endymion saw again the woman who had flown from the moonlight. Her beauty made Endymion gasp for breath, and he instinctively opened his eyes.