Do you know about the Astra Planetae?
I did not know about them till today, and oh my goodness! Gods of the planets? They are all so cool. I did kinda hyperfixated on them for a few hours so I now know a decent amount to ramble about it First of all these were gods who personified the planets the same way Helios personifies the sun and Selene personifies the moon, and they were the sons of Eos and Astraeus (Titan of stars). There are 5 of them (maybe 6 if you count Eosphorus and Hesperus as separate gods), only the planets Uranus and Neptune don't have an Astra Planeta associated with them as they were only discovered after the creation of telescopes.
Funny that Theoi refeers to Pluto as a planet lol. If Pluto is a planet so is Haumea, Makemake, Eris and Ceres.... why is Pluto the only Dwarf Planet mentioned? That is some favouritism /j sorry I HAD to point out that because I thought it is funny. THE ASTRA PLANETA were the gods of the five wandering stars. They were named Phainon (planet Saturn), Phaethon (planet Jupiter), Pyroeis (planet Mars), Eosphoros (planet Venus) and Stilbon (planet Mercury). -Theoi page on the Astra Planeta Eosphoros and Hesperus sometimes are regarded as the same god and sometimes not. Eosphoros seems to be the mourning star while Hesperus is the evening star, both of these 'stars' are actually the planet Venus so they are essentially the same thing seen in different times of the day.
Source: Perseus digital library, Maurus Servius Honoratus, Commentary on the Eclogues of Vergil
I wish I could have found an english translation to this, I can barely understand this and that's only because I speak a romance language. According to Wikipedia It says that Hesperus loved Hymenaios (My boy! Erote of the wedding hymn) and then it says that Hymenaios lost his voice while singing in the wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne? :( He is the god of the wedding hymn and cant sing anymore?
In this depiction of the Astra Planeta we can see them diving into the ocean as Helios come and I think that is so cute. It is a fun way to show where the stars go when day comes along XD I gotta say i LOVE how Mars' Astra Planeta is called Pyroeis. For those who don't know pyro means fire and the planet Mars is often called the red planet so it fits so well
I need to look at it further but seems like these guys were gifted to the gods? Mercury's Planeta is said to belong to Hermes, so wassup with that
Here they seem to be a creation of Prometheus and they are said to have been presented to Jove. Phaenon being said to exceed all others in beauty heheheh little did these ancient astronomers knew how gorgeous Saturn's rings are (Saturn's rings were only discovered around 1600)
Finally we have Phaethon which yes he is the same Phaethon that Aphrodite kidnapped. I knew that he was turned into (or was born depending on the parentage) a planet but I kinda assumed that he was the planet Venus, since he guards Aphrodite's temple, it kinda surprised me to find out that he is actually the daimon of the planet Jupiter.
Anyways, I love them now, thank you Anon xD













