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Nyx
Goddess and personification of the night
La Nuit by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1884)
Abode	Tartarus
Genealogy
Parents	Chaos
Consort	Erebus
Children	According to Hesiod: With Erebus: Aether, Hemera. Without a father: Moros, Ker, Thanatos, Hypnos, the Oneiroi, Momus, Oizys, the Hesperides, the Moirai, the Keres, Nemesis, Apate, Philotes, Geras and Eris.
Equivalents
Roman	Nox

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In Greek mythology, Nyx (/nɪks/ NIX; Template:Lang-grc Nýx, Template:IPA-grc, "Night") 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). By herself, she produces a brood of children consisting of various personifications of primarily negative forces. Nyx features prominently in Orphic sources, where she is considered to be the mother of Uranus and Gaia, and sometimes the daughter and consort of Phanes. In such accounts, she is variously described as the first being to exist, or as the second ruler of the gods.

She is typically portrayed as either a winged goddess with a dark cloud halo or dressed in black surrounded by dark mist. Her Roman equivalent is Nox (Night).

Genealogy

According to Hesiod's Theogony, Nyx is the offspring of Chaos, alongside Erebus (Darkness), by whom she becomes the mother of Aether and Hemera (Day). 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). A number of these offspring are similarly described as her children by later authors. Other early sources, however, give differing genealogies. According to one such account, she is the mother of Tartarus by Aether, while in others, she is variously described as the mother of Eros by Aether, or the mother of Aether, Eros, and Metis by Erebus. The poet Bacchylides apparently considered Nyx to be the mother of Hemera by Chronos (Time), and elsewhere mentions Hecate as her daughter. Several authors also mention Nyx as the mother of the Erinyes (Furies).

In Orphic sources, Nyx is frequently mentioned as the mother of Uranus. In one narrative, in which Nyx is the first being to exist, she is considered to be the mother of Uranus and Gaia, without a father. In another account, she is described as both the consort and daughter of Phanes (despite seeming to exist before him), by whom she becomes the mother of Uranus and Gaia, though she may have instead been the mother of Phanes. In an account likely derived from an Orphic cosmogony, Nyx gives birth to a "wind-egg", from which Eros emerges. In later sources, she is mentioned as the mother of the Stars (by Uranus?), and, in one account, is described as the daughter of Eros.

Nox, the Roman equivalent of Nyx, also features in several genealogies given by Roman authors. According to Cicero, Aether and Dies (Day) were the children of Nox and Erebus, in addition to Amor (Love), Dolus (Guile), Metus (Fear), Labor (Toil), Invidentia (Envy), Fatum (Fate), Senectus (Old Age), Mors (Death), Tenebrae (Darkness), Miseria (Misery), Querella (Lamentation), Gratia (Favour), Fraus (Fraud), Pertinacia (Obstinacy), the Parcae, the Hesperides (Daughters of Hesperus), and the Somnia (Dreams). In the genealogy given by the Roman mythographer Hyginus, Nox is one of the offspring of Chaos and Caligo (Mist), alongside Dies and Erebus. With Erebus, she produces Fatum (Fate), Senectus (Old Age), Mors (Death), Letum (Destruction), Continentia (Strife), Somnus (Sleep), the Somnia (Dreams), Lysimeles (Thoughtfulness), Epiphron (Hedymeles), Porphyrion, Epaphus, Discordia (Discord), Miseria (Misery), Petulantia (Petulance), Nemesis, Euphrosyne (Cheerfulness), Amicitia (Friendship), Misericordia (Pity), Styx, the Parcae (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos), and the Hesperides (Aegle, Hesperia, and Erythea). Several other Roman sources mention Nox as the mother of the Furies, with Pluto sometimes given as the father. In a much later Greek source, Nyx was apparently considered to be the mother of the Moirai by Cronus.

Mythology and literature

Hesiod

In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod locates there the home of Nyx, and the homes of her children Hypnos and Thanatos. Hesiod says further that Nyx's daughter Hemera (Day) left Tartarus just as Nyx (Night) entered it; continuing cyclicly, when Hemera returned, Nyx left.

Homer

In the Iliad of Homer, Hypnos, the minor deity of sleep, 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 cast Hypnos into the sea if he had not fled to Nyx, his mother, in fear. Hypnos goes on to say that Zeus, fearing Nyx's anger, held his fury at bay and in this way he escaped the wrath of Zeus by appealing to his powerful mother. 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 maternal fury. This tale is often cited as evidence that Zeus is fearful of Nyx.

Others

In several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus, Nyx, rather than Chaos, is the first principle from which all creation emerges. Nyx occupies a cave or adyton, in which she gives oracles. Cronus – who is chained within, asleep and drunk on honey – dreams and prophesies. 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. Phanes was the child or father of Nyx. Nyx is also the first principle in the opening chorus of Aristophanes' The Birds, which is a parody of an Orphic cosmogony. Here she is also the mother of Eros.

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. The classical scholar Walter Burkert has speculated that the house of the goddess to which the philosopher is transported is the palace of Nyx.

Some authors made Nyx the mother of Eos, the dawn goddess, who was often conflated with Nyx's daughter Hemera. When Eos' son Memnon was killed during the Trojan War, Eos made Helios (the sun god) downcast, and asked Nyx to come out earlier so that she would collect her son's dead body undetected by the Greek and the Trojan armies.

Cult

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. According to Pausanias, she had an oracle on the acropolis at Megara. Pausanias wrote:

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.

More often, Nyx was worshipped 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. Cult titles composed of compounds of nyx- are attested for several deities, most notably Dionysus Nyktelios "nocturnal" and Aphrodite Philopannyx "who loves the whole night".

Roman authors mentioned cult practices and wrote hymns in the honor of their equivalent goddess Nox (Night). Ovid wrote: "May 9 Lemuria Nefastus. You ancient rite will be performed, Nox Lemuria; here will be offerings to the mute dead", and she is also mentioned by Statius:

O Nox . . . Ever shall this house throughout the circling periods of the year hold thee high in honour and in worship; black bulls of chosen beauty shall pay thee sacrifice , O goddess! And Vulcanus' fire shall eat the lustral entrails, where-o'er the new milk streams.

Worship

Nyx was worshiped by the early Orphic people. Their hymns portray her as the parent of all life. Her offerings consist of black animals that were burned and buried.

Astronomy

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

Notes

1. Oxford dictionary
2. LSJ, s.v. νύξ.
3. Grimal, s.v. Nyx, p. 314.
4. Tripp, s.v. Nyx, p. 399.
5. Gantz, p. 4; Hard, pp. 23–4; Hesiod, Theogony 123–5.
6. Gantz, pp. 4–5; Hesiod, Theogony 211–25. The translations used here are those given by Gantz.
7. Hesiod, Works and Days 17 (pp. 86, 87) (two Strifes, one a daughter of Night); Pausanias, 7.5.3 (two Nemeses daughters of Night); PMG 1018 (Page, p. 536) (Fates daughters of Nyx; see Gantz, p. 8); Seneca, Hercules 1066–9 (pp. 102, 103) (Sleep and Death daughters of Night).
8. Chrysanthou, p. 303; Fowler, p. 8; BNJ 457 F4a.
9. Fowler, p. 6; Cook, p. 315 n. 4; West, p. 209 n. 106.
10. Fowler, pp. 5–6; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Nyx.
11. Bacchylides, Victory Odes 7.1–2 (pp. 156, 157).
12. Gantz, p. 26; Bacchylides, fr. 1B Campbell, pp. 252–5 .
13. Aeschylus, Eumenides 416 (pp. 394, 395), 821–2 (pp. 456, 457), 1034 (pp. 482, 483); Lycophron, Alexandra 437 (pp. 356, 357).
14. Aristophanes, Birds 693–9.
15. Morand, p. 331; Orphic Hymn to the Stars (7), 3 (Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 9).
16. Meisner, p. 172; Orphic Argonautica, 14–5 (Vian, p. 75).
17. Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.44 (pp. 328, 329).
18. Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 1 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95; Latin text).
19. Virgil, Aeneid 6.250, 323–332, 12.845–6; Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.451–2 (pp. 210, 211).
20. Smith, s.v. Moira; Tzetzes on Lycophron's Alexandra, 406 (pp. 584–6).
21. Hesiod, Theogony 744–745
22. Hesiod, Theogony 758–759
23. Hesiod, Theogony 746–750
24. Homer, Iliad 14.249–261.
25. Aristophanes, Birds 693–698.
26. Quintus Smyrnaeus, 2.625–26; cf. Aeschylus, Agamemnon 265
27. Philostratus of Lemnos, Imagines 1.7.2
28. Pausanias, 1.40.1
29. Pausanias, 1.40.6
30. Pausanias, 10.38.6
31. Pausanias, 3.18.1
32. Pausanias, 1.40.6
33. Orphic Hymn 55 to Aphrodite 3 (Athanassakis & Wolkow, p. 46).
34. Ovid, Fasti 5.421–422 (trans.Boyle)
35. Thebaid 1. 497 ff (trans. Mozley)

References

• Aeschylus, Eumenides in Oresteia: Agamemnon. Libation-Bearers. Eumenides, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein, Loeb Classical Library No. 146, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99628-1. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Aristophanes, Birds in The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2., Eugene O'Neill, Jr., New York, Random House, 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4214-0882-8. Internet Archive. Google Books.
• Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 9, Mini-Obe, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2006. ISBN 978-90-04-12272-7. Online version at Brill.
• Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume IV: Bacchylides, Corinna, Loeb Classical Library No. 461, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-674-99508-6. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum in Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods. Academics, translated by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library No. 268, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, first published 1933, revised 1951. ISBN 978-0-674-99296-2. Online version at Harvard University Press. Internet Archive.
• Chrysanthou, Anthi, Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, the Teletae and the Writings, De Gruyter, 2020. ISBN 978-3-110-67839-0. Online version at De Gruyter.
• Cook, Arthur Bernard (1925b), Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Volume II: Zeus God of the Dark Sky (Thunder and Lightning), Part II: Appendixes and Index, Cambridge University Press, 1925. Internet Archive.
• Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-198-14741-1. Google Books.
• Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. Internet Archive.
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Internet Archive.
• Hesiod, Works and Days, in Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Hygini Fabulae, edited by Herbert Jennings Rose, Leiden, Sijthoff, 1934. Online version at Packhum.
• Lycophron, Alexandra in in Callimachus, Lycophron, Aratus, Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron: Alexandra. Aratus: Phaenomena, translated by A. W. Mair and G. R. Mair, Loeb Classical Library No. 129, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1921. ISBN 978-0-674-99143-9. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Meisner, Dwayne A., Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods, Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-190-66352-0. Online version at Oxford University Press. Google Books.
• Morand, Anne-France, Études sur les Hymnes Orphiques, Brill, 2001. ISBN 978-900-4-12030-3. Online version at Brill.
• Ovid, Fasti, A. J. Boyle, R. D. Woodard (translators); Penguin Classics, 2000. ISBN 978-0140446906.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, Volume I: Books 1-8, translated by Frank Justus Miller, revised by G. P. Goold, Loeb Classical Library No. 42, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1977, first published 1916. ISBN 978-0-674-99046-3. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Page, Denys Lionel, Sir, Poetae Melici Graeci, Oxford University Press, 1962. ISBN 978-0-198-14333-8.
• Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Seneca, Hercules in Tragedies, Volume I: Hercules. Trojan Women. Phoenician Women. Medea. Phaedra, edited and translated by John G. Fitch, Loeb Classical Library No. 61, Cambridge, Massachusetts, , 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99717-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Smith, Scott R., and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis/Cambridge, 2007. ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6. Google Books.
• Quintus Smyrnaeus, Quintus Smyrnaeus: The Fall of Troy, translated by A.S. Way, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1913. Internet Archive.
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). ISBN 0-690-22608-X. Internet Archive.
• Tzetzes, John, Scolia eis Lycophroon, edited by Christian Gottfried Müller, Sumtibus F.C.G. Vogelii, 1811. Internet Archive.
• Vian, Francis, Les Argonautiques orphiques, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2003. ISBN 978-2-25100-389-4.
• Virgil, Aeneid, edited and translated by Theodore C. Williams, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1910. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• West, M. L., The Orphic Poems, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1983. ISBN 978-0-19-814854-8.

External links

• Media related to Nyx at Wikimedia Commons

• Nyx
• Personifications in Greek mythology
• Greek primordial deities
• Night goddesses
• Oracular goddesses
• Underworld goddesses
• Greek goddesses
• Women of Hades
• Deities in the Iliad
• Classical oracles
• Greek underworld