Pantheon: Olympian
Element: Water
Sphere of Influence: War and Illness
Preferred colors: black, silver
Associated symbol: Stars on black veil Animals associated with: Owl , Bat Best day to work with: Monday Strongest around Yule Associated Planet: Moon
The Goddess Nyx was one of the first deities to emerge from the void at the beginning of time. She is the feminine personification of night, and represents darkness, nightmares, dreams and mystery. she is attributed with power over illness, suffering, dreams, misfortunes, quarrels, war, murder, sleep and death. Daughter of Chaos and wife of Erebos she bore two children, Aether and Hemera. It is reputed that anything inexplicable or frightening that befell men was attributed to Nyx.
Greek myth (primordial) In Greek mythology, Nyx was the primordial goddess of the night.
== Nyx in Hesiod== In Hesiods Theogony, Night is born of Chaos (mythology)|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", "the tribe of dreams", the Hesperides, the Keres and Fates, Nemesis, Apate "deception", Philotes "friendship", Geras "age", and Eris "strife",
In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod says further that Hemera "day", who is now Nights 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 Usha "dawn".
== Nyx in Orphic Poetry== Night took on an even more important role in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus. In them, Night, rather than Chaos (mythology)|Chaos, is the first principle. Night occupies a cave or adyton, in which she gives oracles. Cronus| Kronos - who is chained within, asleep and drunk on honey - dreams and prophesies. Outside the cave, Adrastea (mythology)|Adrastea clashes cymbals and beats upon her tympanon, moving the entire universe in an ecstatic dance to the rhythm of Nyxs chanting.
==Other Greek texts== Night is also the first principle in the opening chorus of Aristophaness Birds, which may be Orphic in inspiration. Here she is also the mother of Eros (god)|Eros. In other texts she may be the mother of Charon (mythology)|Charon (with Erebus), and Phthonus "envy" (with Dionysus?).
The theme of Nights cave or house, beyond the ocean (as in Hesiod) or somewhere at the edge of the universe|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.
==Cults of Night== In Greece, Night is only rarely the recipient of cult. According to Pausanias (geographer)|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 Sparta|Spartans had a cult of Sleep and Death, conceived of as twins (Paus. 3.18.1) - no doubt with Night as their mother. 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).
== Nyx outside of Greece== In Roman mythology|Roman texts that takes up this Greek mythology|Greek theme, Nyx is translated as Nox. (Virgil V, 721)
==References== * Aristophanes, Birds. * Hesiod, Theogony. * Otto Kern ed., Orphicorum Fragmenta. * Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias, Descriptions of Greece.
