In Greek mythology, Nyx (;Tripp, p. 624. )LSJ s.v. νύξ. is the goddess and personification of the night.Grimal, s.v. Nyx, p. 314. In Hesiod's Theogony, she is the offspring of Chaos, and the mother of Aether (Upper Sky) and Hemera (Day) by Erebus (Darkness). By herself, she produces a brood of children which are mainly personifications of primarily negative forces. She features in a number of early cosmogonies, which place her as one of the first deities to exist. In the works of poets and playwrights, she lives at the ends of the Earth, and is often described as a black-robed goddess who drives through the sky in a chariot pulled by horses. In the Iliad, Homer relates that even Zeus fears to displease her.
Night is a prominent figure in several theogonies of Orphic literature, in which she is often described as the mother of Uranus and Gaia. In the earliest Orphic cosmogonies, she is the first deity to exist, while in the later Orphic Rhapsodies, she is the daughter and consort of Phanes, and the second ruler of the gods. She delivers prophecies to Zeus from an adyton, and is described as the nurse of the gods. In the Rhapsodies, there may have been three separate figures named Night.
In ancient Greek art, Nyx often appears alongside other celestial deities such as Selene, Helios and Eos, as a winged figure driving a horse-pulled chariot. Though of little cultic importance, she was also associated with several oracles. The Romans referred to her as Nox,Tripp, s.v. Nyx, p. 399. whose name also means "Night".Vaan, s.v. nox, p. 416.
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).Gantz, p. 4; Hard, pp. 23–4; Hesiod, Theogony 123–5. 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).Gantz, pp. 4–5; Hesiod, Theogony 211–25. The translations used here are those given by Gantz. A number of these offspring are similarly described as her children by later authors.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 sons of Night); Orphic Hymn to the Fates (59), 1 (Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 48) (Fates daughters of Night); Nonnus, Dionysiaca 31.117 (pp. 430, 431) (Sleep son of Night). The Roman authors Cicero and Hyginus provide Nox, the Roman counterpart of Nyx, with similar lists of offspring (see below). Other early sources, however, give genealogies which differ from Hesiod's. According to one such account, she is the mother of Tartarus by Aether,Chrysanthou, p. 303; Fowler 2013, p. 8; Meisner, p. 92; Epimenides fr. 5 Diels, p. 190. while in others, she is described as the mother of Eros by Aether,Fowler 2013, p. 6; West, p. 209 n. 106; Acusilaus, fr. 6c Fowler, pp. 6–7. or the mother of Aether, Eros, and Metis by Erebus.Fowler 2013, pp. 5–6; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Nyx; Acusilaus, fr. 6b Fowler, p. 6. The poet Bacchylides apparently considered Nyx to be the mother of Hemera by Chronos (Time),Bacchylides, Victory Odes 7.1–2 (pp. 156, 157). and elsewhere mentions Hecate as her daughter.Gantz, p. 26; Fowler 2013, p. 33; Bacchylides, fr. 1B Campbell, pp. 252–5 [= Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, 3.467 (Wendel 1999, p. 233)] [= P. Oxy. 2366.3–8]. Aeschylus mentions Nyx as the mother of the Erinyes (Furies),Gantz, p. 13; Karusu, p. 905; Aeschylus, Eumenides 321–2 (pp. 394, 395), 416 (pp. 394, 395), 791–2 (pp. 454, 455), 821–2 (pp. 456, 457), 1034 (pp. 482, 483). According to Sommerstein, p. 395 n. 82 to line 322, Aeschylus here seemingly identifies the Erinyes with the Keres, who are daughters of Nyx in Hesiod. See also Lycophron, Alexandra 437 (pp. 356, 357). while Euripides considered Lyssa (Madness) to be the daughter of Nyx and Uranus.Parada, p. 110; Keightley, p. 44; Karusu, p. 905; Euripides, Herakles 823 (pp. 386, 387) (daughter of Night), 834 (pp. 388, 389) (daughter of Night), 844 (pp. 388, 389) (daughter of Night and Heaven).
Nox (the Latin name for Nyx) features in several genealogies given by Roman authors. According to Cicero, Aether and Dies (Day) are 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, and the Somnia (Dreams).Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.44 (pp. 328, 329). In the genealogy given by the Roman mythographer Hyginus, Nox is the offspring of Chaos and Caligo (Mist), alongside Dies (Day), Erebus (Darkness), and Aether.Fontenrose, pp. 222–3; Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 1 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95; Latin text). According to Fontenrose, this genealogy may be derived from Eumelus (8th century BC), the author of the Titanomachia; see also Kovaleva, p. 143. With Erebus, she produces Fatum (Fate), Senectus (Old Age), Mors (Death), Letum (Destruction), Continentia (Strife), Somnus (Sleep), the Somnia (Dreams), Epiphron (Thoughtfulness), 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).Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 1 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95; Latin text). Several other Roman sources mention Nox as the mother of the Furies, with Pluto sometimes given as the father.Virgil, Aeneid 6.250, 7.323–332, 12.845–6; Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.451–2 (pp. 210, 211).
In an early Orphic source, in which Nyx is the first deity to exist, she is the mother of Uranus, possibly without a father.Betegh, p. 158; Bernabé 2019, p. 110; Orphic fr. 10 Bernabé (I p. 21) [= Derveni papyrus, col. 14.6 (Kouremenos, Parássoglou and Tsantsanoglou, pp. 133)]. There is debate surrounding whether there was a father, and his identity. Bernabé and Cristobal, p. 88 argue that there was no father, while Betegh, p. 336 considers him to be Aether, and Almqvist, p. 88 suggests he is Phanes. In an earlier Orphic work, in which Nyx is again the first deity, scholars have proposed that she is the mother of Uranus, as well as Gaia; see Meisner, p. 95; Betegh, p. 147; West, pp. 117–9. In a later account, she is described as both the consort and daughter of Phanes, by whom she becomes the mother of Uranus and Gaia.West, p. 70; Meisner, pp. 168–9; Orphic fr. 149 I Bernabé (I p. 146). In another account, likely derived from an Orphic cosmogony,See Betegh, pp. 148–9; Chrysanthou, pp. 301–3. Nyx gives birth to a "wind-egg", from which Eros emerges.Hard, p. 25; Aristophanes, Birds 693–9. In later Orphic sources, she is mentioned as the mother of the Stars (by Uranus?),Morand, p. 331; Orphic Hymn to the Stars (7), 3 (Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 9). and, in one account, is the daughter of Eros.Meisner, p. 172; Smith, s.v. Nyx; Orphic Argonautica, 14–5 (Vian, p. 75) [= fr. 238 Bernabé (I p. 200)]. Elsewhere, the late Greek poet Quintus Smyrnaeus mentions Nyx as the mother of Eos (Dawn),Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 2.625–6; see also Aeschylus, Agamemnon 265, which calls Night the mother of Dawn. while according to Byzantine author Tzetzes, she is the mother of the Moirai, apparently by the Titan Cronus.Smith, s.v. Moira; Tzetzes on Lycophron's Alexandra, 406 (pp. 584–6). In the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, Nyx is the offspring of Chaos, as she is in Hesiod's Theogony,Rouse, p. 435 note c to 31.176; Verhelst, p. 60; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 31.176 (pp. 434, 435). while in a genealogy given by the 12th-century writer Michael of Ephesus (incorrectly attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias),Kotwick, p. 84. she is the offspring of Oceanus, and the mother of Uranus.Betegh, p. 150; Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias (Michael of Ephesus), in Aristotle, Metaphysics 821.16 [= fr. 367 Bernabé (I p. 295)].
Early sources Iliad
Homer, in the Iliad (c. 8th century BC), relates a story in which Nyx saves Hypnos from the anger of Zeus.Pucci, pp. 182–3; Homer, Iliad 14.231–61. When Hera comes to Hypnos and attempts to persuade him into lulling Zeus to sleep,Homer, Iliad 14.231–41. he refuses, reminding her of the last time she asked the same favour of him, when it had allowed her to persecute Heracles without her husband's knowledge.Homer, Iliad 14.242–55. Hypnos recounts that once Zeus awoke, he was furious, and would have hurled him into the sea, had he not fled to the protection of Nyx, as Zeus, despite his anger, was "in awe of doing anything to swift Night's displeasure".Homer, Iliad 14.56–61. The translation quoted here is that given by Lattimore, p. 301. According to Janko, p. 193 on lines 256–61, she likely saves him by making him invisible. Keightley, p. 45 sees no reason to believe that Hypnos is Nyx's daughter in this narrative, and also states "[t]he dwelling of both would seem to be on Olympos". It has been suggested that the apparent status which Nyx has in Homer's account may indicate he was aware of a genealogy in which she came before even Oceanus and Tethys (often believed to be the primeval couple in the Iliad),West, p. 120; Meisner, p. 99; see also Kirk, Raven and Schofield, p. 17. For Oceanus and Tethys as primeval parents, see Fowler 2013, p. 11; West, pp. 119–20. and Pietro Pucci suggests that the story may have been derived from an earlier work, which contained a more detailed account of the event.Pucci, p. 183 n. 75. He suggests "an earlier Gigantomachy or Herakleia" as candidates.
Hesiod