Nyx

Greek deities
series
Titans and Olympians
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Personified concepts
Other deities
Primordial deities
  • Eros
  • Erebus
  • Nyx
  • Ophion
  • Tartarus

In Greek mythology, Nyx (Νύξ, Nox in Roman translation) was the primordial goddess of the night. A shadowy figure, Night stood at or near the beginning of creation, and was the mother of personified gods such as Sleep and Death. Her appearances in mythology are sparse, but reveal her as a figure of exceptional power, and extreme beauty.

Contents

Role in myth and literature

Hesiod

In Hesiod's Theogony, Night is born of Chaos; her offspring are many, and telling. With her brother Erebus, Night gives birth to Aether ("atmosphere") and Hemera ("day"). Later, on her own, Night gives birth to Momus "blame", Ponos "toil", Moros "fate", Thanatos "death", Hypnos "sleep", Charon, the Oneiroi "the tribe of dreams", the Hesperides, the Keres and Fates, Nemesis "retribution", Apate "deception", Philotes "friendship", Geras "age", and Eris "strife". In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod says further that Hemera "day", who is now Night's sister rather than daughter, left Tartarus just as Nyx entered it; when Hemera returned, Nyx left. This mirrors the portrayal of Ratri "night" in the Rig-Veda, where she works in close cooperation but also tension with her sister Ushas "dawn".

Brygos: Nyx, Attic cup

Homer

In Book 14 of Homer's Iliad, there is a quote by Hypnos, the minor god of sleep, in which he reminds Hera of an old favor after she asks him to put Zeus to sleep. He had once before put Zeus to sleep at the bidding of Hera, allowing her to cause Heracles (who was returning by sea from Laomedon's Troy) great misfortune. Zeus was furious and would have smitten Hypnos into the sea if he had not fled to Nyx, his mother, in fear. Hypnos goes on to say that Zeus, fearing to anger Nyx, held his fury at bay, and in this way Hypnos escaped the wrath of Zeus.

Other Greek texts

Night took on an even more important role in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus. In them, Night, rather than Chaos, is the first principle. Night occupies a cave or adyton, in which she gives oracles. Kronos - who is chained within, asleep and drunk on honey – dreams and prophesies. Outside the cave, Adrastea clashes cymbals and beats upon her tympanon, moving the entire universe in an ecstatic dance to the rhythm of Nyx's chanting. Phanes - the strange, monstrous, hermaphrodite Orphic demiurge - was the child or father of Nyx. Night is also the first principle in the opening chorus of Aristophanes's Birds, which may be Orphic in inspiration. Here she is also the mother of Eros. In other texts she may be the mother of Charon (with Erebus), and Phthonus "envy" (with Dionysus?).

The theme of Night's cave or house, beyond the ocean (as in Hesiod) or somewhere at the edge of the cosmos (as in later Orphism) may be echoed in the philosophical poem of Parmenides. The classical scholar Walter Burkert has speculated that the house of the goddess to which the philosopher is transported is the palace of Night; this hypothesis, however, must remain tentative.

Role in society

Cults of Nyx

Nyx, as represented in the 10th-century Paris Psalter at the side of the Prophet Isaiah.

In Greece, Night is only rarely the focus of cults. According to Pausanias, she had an oracle on the acropolis at Megara (Paus. 1.40.1).

More often, Nyx lurks in the background of other cults. Thus there was a statue called "Night" in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The Spartans had a cult of Sleep and Death, conceived of as twins (Paus. 3.18.1). Cult titles composed of compounds of nyx- are attested for several gods, most notably Dionysus Nyktelios "nocturnal" (Paus. 1.40.6) and Aphrodite Philopannyx "who loves the whole night" (Orphic Hymn 55).

Modern homages

On June 21 2006, the International Astronomical Union renamed one of Pluto's recently discovered moons (S/2005 P 2) to Nix, in honor of Nyx. The name was spelled with an "i" instead of a "y", to avoid conflict with the asteroid 3908 Nyx.

Nyx, goddess of the night (by William-Adolphe Bouguereau - La Nuit (1883))

A series of young adult novels by PC Cast and Kristen Cast known as "The House of Night Series" feature Nyx as the main goddess worshiped by vampyres and young fledgling vampyres at the eponymous school.

Nox is an important, if enigmatic, character in Piers Anthony's novel, "And Eternity", the final of his "Incarnations of Immortality" series.

Nyx is the final boss in the game Persona 3

Children of Nyx

  1. ↑ In varying accounts, Phanes is the father, brother, husband, or son of Nyx.

References

See also

External links