He further developed it while serving as a Hofmeister on the estate of Charlotte von Kalb, and put finishing touches to the novel while receiving lectures from Johann Gottlieb Fichte at the University of Jena.

[2] It recounts Hyperion's attempts to overthrow the Turkish rule in Greece (in one of the footnotes Hölderlin specifically ties events in the novel with the Russians "bringing a fleet into the Archipelago" in 1770, framing the novel's events into the Orlov Revolt), his disillusionment with the rebellion, survival in the deadly Battle of Chesma, his devastation when Diotima dies of a broken heart before they can be reunited and his subsequent life as a hermit in the Greek wilderness, where he embraces the beauty of nature and overcomes the tragedy of his solitude.

In Arnold Fanck's 1926 film Der Heilige Berg, Leni Riefenstahl's character Diotima is named after Hyperion's love.

The Italian composer Luigi Nono included passages from Hyperion in his work Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima for string quartet as part of the score to be "sung" silently by the performers while playing the piece.

In 1983, the German sculptor Angela Laich created a sculpture named Hyperion, after the main character of the Hölderlin novel.