![]() More often, Nyx was worshipped in the background of other cults. When you have ascended the citadel, which even at the present day is called Karia (Caria) from Kar (Car), son of Phoroneus, you see a temple of Dionysos Nyktelios (Nyctelius, Nocturnal), a sanctuary built to Aphrodite Epistrophia (She who turns men to love), an oracle called that of Nyx (Night) and a temple of Zeus Konios (Cronius, Dusty) without a roof. According to Pausanias, she had an oracle on the acropolis at Megara. There was no known temple dedicated to Nyx, but statues are known to have been made of her and a few cult practices of her are mentioned. Nyx, as represented in the 10th-century Paris Psalter at the side of the Prophet Isaiah In some accounts, the goddess of witchcraft, Hecate was also called the daughter of Night. The classical scholar Walter Burkert has speculated that the house of the goddess to which the philosopher is transported is the palace of Nyx this hypothesis, however, must remain tentative. The theme of Nyx's cave or mansion, 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. Nyx is also the first principle in the opening chorus of Aristophanes' The Birds, which may be Orphic in inspiration. Phanes – the strange, monstrous, hermaphrodite Orphic demiurge – was the child or father of Nyx. Outside the cave, Adrasteia clashes cymbals and beats upon her tympanon, moving the entire universe in an ecstatic dance to the rhythm of Nyx's chanting. Cronus – who is chained within, asleep and drunk on honey – dreams and prophesies. Nyx occupies a cave or adyton, in which she gives oracles. In them, Nyx, rather than Chaos, is the first principle from which all creation emerges. Nyx took on an even more important role in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus. He disturbed Zeus only a few times after that, always fearing Zeus and running back to his mother, Nyx, who would have confronted Zeus with a maternal fury. Homer 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 by appealing to his powerful mother. Zeus was furious and would have smote Hypnos into the sea if he had not fled to Nyx, his mother, in fear. 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. This mirrors the portrayal of Ratri (night) in the Rigveda, where she works in close cooperation but also tension with her sister Ushas (dawn).Īt Iliad 14.249–61, Hypnos, the minor deity of sleep, reminds Hera of an old favor after she asks him to put Zeus to sleep. ![]() Hesiod says further that Nyx's daughter Hemera (Day) left Tartarus just as Nyx (Night) entered it continuing cyclicly, when Hemera returned, Nyx left. In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod locates there the home of Nyx, and the homes of her children Hypnos and Thanatos. Roman-era bronze statuette of Nyx velificans or Selene (Getty Villa) Finally, Nyx bore the ferryman of Hades, Charon. Later, on her own, Nyx gives birth to Moros (Doom, Destiny), the Keres (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Indignation, Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Friendship), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Strife). With Erebus (Darkness), Nyx gives birth to Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). In Hesiod's Theogony, Nyx is born of Chaos. Nyx, Brygos Painter, after 490 BC, Berlin, Germany ![]() ![]() Her appearances are sparse in surviving mythology, but reveal her as a figure of such exceptional power and beauty that she is feared by Zeus himself. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation and mothered other personified deities such as Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), with Erebus (Darkness). Nyx (/nɪks/ Ancient Greek: Νῠ́ξ, Nýx,, 'Night') is the Greek goddess (or personification) of the night. ![]()
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