THIA
Real Name:
Theia (original spelling)
Occupation:
Goddess of the sun, President of Sun Publishing
Legal Status:
Exiled citizen of Olympus
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Theia except as a mythological deity.
Other Aliases:
Thia Vesper among others
Place of Birth:
Marital Status: (Hyperion) Separated, but she has married several times
Known Relatives:
Ouranus
(father, deceased), Gaea
(mother), Hyperion
(brother/husband), Coeus, Crius, Cronus,
Japet, Oceanus, Ophion (brothers), Dione,
Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Tethys, Themis (sisters), Helios (son), Eos, Selene
(daughters), Zeus,
Poseidon, Hades
(nephews), Hera,
Demeter, Hestia,
Aphrodite, The
Muses, The Horae, The
Fates (nieces), Lilith Clay (alleged daughter, alias Omen), Carl Vesper
(son, deceased),
Group Affiliations: The Gods of Olympus, The Children of the Sun
Base of Operations:
Mobile
First Appearance: New Teen Titans II #7
History: Thia is a member of an extra-dimensional race of beings known as the Titans who were worshipped as gods by the Ancient Greeks. According to ancient myths, the Titans were the progeny of Ouranus, the sentient life force of the Earth's atmosphere, and Gaea, the primeval mother-goddess spirit who shared her life-force with that of the Earth. Ouranus had mated with Gaea and fathered the Titans, the original gods of Greece, who were born physically perfect. Ouranus was greatly pleased by his progeny and mated with Gaea again, and she gave birth to the Cyclopes, three sons born with only one eye each. Ouranus mated with Gaea again and had three more monstrous sons, the Hecatocheiroi, who were born with a multitude of arms. Gaea greatly loved all her children, but Ouranus was greatly embarrassed by the Cyclops and the Hecatocheiroi and he imprisoned them away in Tartarus, the most dismal section of the extra dimensional underworld later known as Hades, so he would not have to look upon them. (Ouranus and Cronus are not to be confused with the eternals Uranus and Kronos, the latter of whom is also known as Kronos.)
Gaea grieved greatly for the Cyclopes and the Hecatocheiroi and desired to free them from the underworld. She called upon the Titans for one of them brave enough to overthrow their father and free their brothers from the underworld, but they all refused out of fear of him and his power. From among them, Cronus promised to carry out her wishes and took a scythe to slay Ouranus. Cronus overthrew his father's rule of the gods by fatally wounding him, but the dying Ouranus prophesized that Cronus would likewise be overthrown by one of his own children.
Thia meanwhile had been taken as the wife of Hyperion, the sun-god. Their children included the sun-god Helios, Eos the dawn-goddess and Selene the goddess of night. They ruled from Earth as gods revered by their worshippers while Cronus controlled Olympus. As a result of Ouranus' dying prophesy, upon the birth of his own children, Cronus had the infant imprisoned in Tartarus. The offspring he sent there were Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. (Later legends erroneously claimed that Cronus had actually swallowed his children and that they remained alive inside him until released by their brother Zeus.) Rhea likewise concealed her sixth pregnancy from Cronus and secretly gave birth to Zeus on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia, another area of land now known as Greece. Rhea gave the infant Zeus to the safekeeping of Gaea, who hid the baby in the cave of Dicte on Aegean Hill on the isle of Crete, where he was tended by various minor goddesses. As an adult, Zeus fought to conquer Olympus in a ten year war which ended with Zeus's victory. He imprisoned most of the Titans in Tartarus and established himself as ruler of the gods, sharing his dominance of Earth with Poseidon and Hades, who took dominance over the seas and the underworld, respectively. Displeased with these results, Gaea later conceived a race of Giants to lay siege on the Olympians, but Zeus used subterfuge to keep them from becoming gods and with the aide of Hercules, slew them from becoming a major threat.
Eventually after several centuries, Thia managed to escape Olympus alone and traveled to Earth where she lived as a mortal woman, learning how to live on Earth by seducing and marrying men to acquire a position of power. Several of her mortal children acquired important positions of power in commerce and politics. She raised her children to be ambitious opportunists under the auspices of a cult called the Children of the Sun and convinced them that they would someday inherit the Earth. It is not known of they were aware of her ancient origins were several of the cult members became quite fanatical in their beliefs. Eventually, Thia married the president of Sun Publishing, one of the richest men in the world behind Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark. She eventually had him murdered in order to claim his fortune, but not before he had fathered her another daughter to be named Lilith. (Lilith is not to be confused with Lilith, Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld.) Young Lilith was spirited away by her well-meaning nurse to protect her from her mother and was raised beyond the insanity of the cult. She grew up with psychic powers and eventually joined the Teen Titans. Lilith eventually sought her out to prevent her from turning against her as Zeus had turned against Cronus millennia earlier and eventually kidnapped her back just before launching an assault on Olympus, now moved to a pocket dimension by Zeus.
Sometime prior, however, Hyperion somehow became aware that Thia was not by his side in Tartarus and freed himself. In doing so, he freed the other Titans and they tried to retake Olympus but were defeated by the Olympian gods and their allies in the team of costumed adventurers known as the Teen Titans. Eventually, the Titans stood down upon realizing that mortals no longer worshipped gods. Sensing a possible threat from her siblings, Thia released her mortal siblings, the Giants, from Tartarus to destroy them. She also instructed a young girl she had abducted named Kole to imprison the Amazons of Themiscyra to keep them from aiding the Olympians. (Whether Thia merely forgot to deter the Asgardian gods, allies of the Olympian gods, from getting involved or whether it was just an oversight on her part is unrevealed.) Thia was successful in her siege of Olympus, but the Titans, however, defeated the Giants with the help of the Teen Titans. Together, they helped to free the Amazons and rallied for the Olympians against Thia and her progeny. Hyperion himself confronted Thia, appealing to her out of the love they once had, conjuring a funeral pyre to destroy them both in order to defeat her.
Sometime after, a White House aide named Carl Vesper, another
of Thia's children, became conscious of her death. He rallied the Children of
the Sun in order to attempt a hostile takeover of the United States government,
but without the guidance of his mother, he was easily defeated by Lilith, who
had joined the Teen Titans. The Children of the Sun were eventually defeated and
either imprisoned, completely shattering the cult from ever again gaining power.
Height: 6' 5"
Weight: 410 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red
Strength Level: Theia possesses superhuman strength enabling her to lift
(press) 25 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Theia possesses the conventional physical attributes
of the Olympian gods. Like all Olympians, she is immortal: she has not aged since
reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. She is immune to all
Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If she were somehow
wounded, her godly life force would enable her to recover with superhuman speed. It
would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of her
bodily molecules to cause her a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
a god of significant power, such as Zeus, Poseidon and Apollo or for a number of
Olympian gods of equal power working together to revive her. Theia also possesses
superhuman strength and her Olympian metabolism provides her with far greater than
human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympians' superhuman
strength and weight.)
Theia has mystical abilities to to tap into and manipulate
solar energies, enabling her to conjure and control nearly infinite amounts of
light and heat. She could incinerate virtually anything in her proximity or
render herself so hot that she could not be touched, even by other gods. She
could summon and project portions of super-heated matter such as plasma which
could explode at will, burning all that she touched. Thia could also control all
forms of fire, whether she had created or not, causing it to erupt into a blaze
at will or die out completely. She could also mystically levitate herself at will
within an area of heated air. Contrary to thought, she is not vulnerable to
water or cold, but it can slow her down and interrupt the strength of her force
of her power.
Comments: This bio pretty much describes Thia in the DC Universe; she has
not been seen in the Marvel Universe.
Clarifications: Theia is not to be
confused with:
Last updated: 06/22/08