for solo violin

LISTEN to Eos

Recording: Aaron Packard, violin
(Recorded 20 April 2013 by Fran Flannery at the Treehouse Studio in North Brookfield, MA)

Duration: ca. 4’45”
Composed: 2005
Click here to see a sample page of Eos.

In Greek mythology, Eos was the goddess of Dawn. Daughter of the two Titans Hyperion and Theia, Eos is therefore also the sister of Selene (the Moon) and Helios (the Sun). Eos was commissioned during the winter of 2005 by violinist Benjamin Robison as one of twelve pieces which make up a body of work called The Hours. Eos is meant to represent 4 a.m. in the progression of hours through the night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.  The Hours was first performed by Ben Robison May 1, 2005 in Stony Brook University’s Staller Center for the Arts.

“Eos the yellow-robed arose from the river of Okeanos to carry her light to men and to immortals.”
—Iliad 19.1-2  (Homer)

“Eos [Dawn] comes early, with rosy fingers.”
—Odyssey 2.1, etc.  (repeated many times) (Homer)

“Eos in her broidered robe as she rises from the streams of Okeanos.”
—Odyssey 22.195 (Homer)

“Aas [Eos], leaving the waters of Okeanos, drew from the sky the moon’s holy light.”
—Greek Lyric IV Corinna, Fragment 690

“Aurora [Eos the Dawn], watchful in the reddening dawn, threw wide her crimson doors and rose-filled halls; the Stellae (Stars) took flight, in marshalled order set by Lucifer [Eosphoros] who left his station last. Then, when Titan [Helios the Sun] … saw the world in crimson sheen [he rose into the sky].”
—Metamorphoses 2.112  (Ovid)