Hemera
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| Greek deities series |
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|---|---|
| Titans and Olympians | |
| Aquatic deities | |
| Chthonic deities | |
| Personified concepts | |
| Other deities | |
| Primordial deities | |
In Greek mythology Hemera was the personification of day and one of the Protogenoi or primordial deities. She is the goddess of the daytime and, according to Hesiod (Theogony, 124-125), the daughter of Erebos and Nyx (the goddess of night). Hemera is remarked upon in Cicero's De Natura Deorum (3.17), where it is logically determined that Dies (Hemera) must be a god, if Uranus is a god. The poet Bacchylides states that Nyx and Khronos are the parents, but Hyginus in his preface to the Fabulae mentions Khaos as the mother/ father and Nyx as her sister.
She was the female counterpart of her brother and consort, Aether (Light), but neither of them figured actively in myth or cult. Hyginus lists their children as Ouranos, Gaia, and Thalassa (the primordial sea goddess), while Hesiod only lists Thalassa as their child.
Hemera left Tartarus just as Nyx entered it; when Hemera returned, Nyx left:
- “Nyx and Hemera draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door.” (Theogony 744)
Pausanias seems to confuse her with Eos when saying that she carried Kephalos away. Pausanias makes this identification with Eos upon looking at the tiling of the royal portico in Athens, where the myth of Eos and Kephalos is illustrated. He makes this identification again at Amyklai and at Olympia, upon looking at statues and illustrations where Eos (Hemera) is present.
[edit] Name
Hemera (the Latinised spelling) or Hymera (Gr. Ημερα[citation needed], Ionian Ημερη) mean day. The Latin name for this goddess is Dies. The correct Greek spelling would be Hêmerê.[citation needed]
