| Nyx | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Nyx, Nox |
|
First Appearance |
Greek Mythology |
|
Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
In Greek mythology, Nyx is the goddess and personification of the night. In Hesiod's Theogony, she is the offspring of Chaos, and the mother of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Erebus (Darkness). She features in a number of early cosmogonies, which place her as one of the first deities to exist. In the works of poets and playwrights, she lives at the ends of the Earth, and is often described as a black-robed goddess who drives through the sky in a chariot pulled by horses. In the Iliad, Homer relates that even Zeus fears to displease her.
In ancient Greek art, Nyx often appears alongside other celestial deities such as Selene, Helios and Eos, as a winged figure driving a horse-pulled chariot. Though of little cultic importance, she was also associated with several oracles. The Romans referred to her as Nox, whose name also means "Night".
Homer, in the Iliad (c. 8th century BC), relates a story in which Nyx saves Hypnos from the anger of Zeus. When Hera comes to Hypnos and attempts to persuade him into lulling Zeus to sleep, he refuses, reminding her of the last time she asked the same favor of him, when it had allowed her to persecute Heracles without her husband's knowledge. Hypnos recounts that once Zeus awoke, he was furious, and would have hurled him into the sea, had he not fled to the protection of Nyx, as Zeus, despite his anger, was "in awe of doing anything to swift Night's displeasure". It has been suggested that the apparent status which Nyx has in Homer's account may indicate he was aware of a genealogy in which she came before even Oceanus and Tethys (often believed to be the primeval couple in the Iliad), and Pietro Pucci claims that the story may have been derived from an earlier work, which contained a more detailed account of the event.
In Hesiod's Theogony (late 8th century BC), which the Greeks considered the "standard" account of the origin of the gods, Nyx is one of the earliest beings to exist, as the offspring of Chaos alongside Erebus (Darkness); in the first sexual coupling, she and Erebus produce their personified opposites, Aether and Hemera (Day). Hesiod also makes Nyx, without the aid of a father, the mother of a number of abstract personifications, which are primarily negative in nature. Despite their abstract nature, however, to the Greeks these deities would have represented forces which "exercise[d] a real power in the world".
Without the assistance of a father, Nyx produces Moros (Doom, Destiny), Ker (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), the Keres, Nemesis (Indignation, Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Strife).
Hesiod locates the home of Nyx at the far western end of the Earth, though it is unclear whether or not he considered it to be beyond Oceanus, the river which encircles the world. In a (somewhat confused) section of the Theogony, Hesiod seems to locate her home near the entrance to the underworld, and describes it as being "wrapped in dark clouds". He reports that the Titan Atlas, who is holding up the sky, stands outside of the house, and that the homes of two of her children, Hypnos and Thanatos, are situated nearby. He relates that Nyx and her daughter Hemera live in the same dwelling, and that each day they pass one another at the entrance to the house, with one of them leaving and the other one entering; throughout the day, one passes across the Earth, while the other stays inside, waiting for their turn to leave. In her journey over the world, Hesiod describes Nyx as "wrapped in a vaporous cloud", and as holding her son Hypnos in her arms.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Nyx from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- The Iliad
- Theogony
- Works and Days
- Pindar, Fragments
- Greek Lyric IV Bacchylides, Fragments
- Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments
- Agamemnon
- Eumenides
- Libation Bearers
- Prometheus Bound
- Fragments
- Ion
- Birds
- Thesmophoriazusae
- Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica
- Phaenomena
- Description of Greece
- The Orphic Hymns
- Orphica, Fragments
- Philostratus the Elder, Imagines
- Philostratus the Younger, Imagines
- Fall of Troy
- Dionysiaca
- The Rape of Helen
- Fabulae
- Metamorphoses
- Fasti
- De Natura Deorum
- Hercules Furens
- Valerius Flaccus, The Argonautica
- Thebaid