Cephalus was the son of Deion son of Aeolus and Diomede daughter of Xuthus. He was married to Procris. He was also loved by Eos, goddess of the dawn, who was cursed by Aphrodite to fall in love with any man she sees, but could never be with them. Because Cephalus was married, Eos kidnapped him so he would stay with her and he would love her. Cephalus was faithful to his wife so Eos released him, since she knew he would never love her. After he was abducted by the titan goddess Eos, Cephalus decided to know how faithful his wife was by seeing if she would fall in love with someone else. Procris almost gave into the temptation. So Cephalus went into the forest to become a hunter for Artemis. When Procris learned about this, she asked the hunting goddess to give her some gifts, so her husband would return to her. The goddess gave her a spear that never misses and a dog that always catches its prey.
Cephalus accepted the gifts and took his wife back. However, Procris thought that her husband was cheating on her. So she fallowed him into the woods, hid in the bushes, and spied on him. Cephalus heard the rustling in the bushes and thought it was a wild animal. The spear that never misses hit its target, but Cephalus was shocked to see it was his wife and not an animal. Procris told Cephalus how she thought he was cheating on her but now she knew how faithful he was to her, and she apologized to him. Cephalus was heart broken, so he exiled himself on the Ionian islands. He never recovered from Procris' death, so he jumped off a cliff to be reunited with his wife forever in the afterlife.