Nyx
_-_La_Nuit_(1883).jpg)
Nyx ( Greek Νύξ Nýx ) is the goddess and personification of the night in Greek mythology . According to Homer , even Zeus feared the night. The Nyx corresponds to the Roman Nox .
myth
In Hesiod's theogony , Nyx emerges as one of the first gods out of chaos . Her siblings are Gaia , Tartaros , Eros and Erebos .
In the cosmogony of the Orphics , Phanes is the origin of the Nyx. The rule of the world passes from Phanes to Nyx, then to Kronos and Zeus and finally to Dionysus . A parody of the altorphic cosmogony of Aristophanes shows that Phanes was not the first god among the early Orphics, but Chronos created an egg for Aither . Nyx gave birth to the egg from which the creator god Eros was born. According to Aristotle , who probably also falls back on older cosmogonic ideas, Nyx also existed before Phanes.
According to theogony , the union of Nyx and Erebos resulted in Aither , the personified air, and Hemera , the personified day. From within herself she brought forth other phenomena associated with the night: Hypnos , sleep, Oneiroi , dreams, Thanatos , (peaceful) death and Philotes , affection. However, a series personified evil which the human condition characterized by: Ker , corruption, Moros , doom, momos , the criticism oizys that worries Nemesis , vengeance, Apate , the deceit, Gera , age, Eris , the quarrel as well as the Hesperides , the Keren and the Moiren Klotho , Lachesis and Atropos .
In Homer's Iliad , Nyx is the mother of Hypnos and Thanatos. In archaic poetry , Bakchylides mentions Hekate as descendants and, together with Chronos, Hemera . The tragedy writer Aeschylus names the Moiren and the Erinyes in the Eumenides . Lycophron mentions the Erinyes in Alexandra as children of the Nyx.
In the texts of the Orphics, it emerges from Uranos and the gods of the wandering stars called Astra Planeta . In a parody of the altorphic cosmogony of Aristophanes , Eros and Aither are named as descendants.
Family tree based on Hesiod's theogony
| chaos | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gaia | Tartaros | Nyx | Erebos | Eros | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aither | Hemera | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hesperides | Ker | Moros | Thanatos | Hypnos | Oneiroi | Momos | Keren | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Moiren | Nemesis | Apate | Philotes | Geras | Eris | Oizys | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clotho | Lachesis | Atropos | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Roman poets Virgil and Ovid name the Erinyes as descendants of the Nyx. For Seneca it is called the mother of Hypnos and Thanatos.
In Ciceros De natura deorum she is from Erebos the mother of Amor , Aither and Hemera as well as Dolus , Metus , Labor , Invidentia , Fatum , Senectus , Mors , the Tenebrae , Miseria , Querella , Gratia , Fraus , Obstinacia , the Parzen , the Hesperides and the Somnia .
With Hyginus , the descendants of Nyx and Erebos are Fatum, Senectus, Mors, Letum , Continentia , Somnus , Somnia, Amor, Epiphron , Porphyrion , Epaphos, Discordia , Miseria, Petulantia , Nemesis , Euphrosyne , Amicitia , Misericordia , Styx , the Parzen and the hesperides.
The Greek geographer Pausanias names Nemesis as a descendant of Nyx, the late antique writer Quintus von Smyrna names Eos-Hemera and Johannes Tzetzes calls her with Chronos the mother of Moiren.
Family trees according to Cicero and Hyginus
cult
Nyx hardly had any cultic meaning. Only two oracle sites are reported, one in Delphi and the other in Megara near the temple of Dionysus Nyktelios . Occasionally there is also talk of sacrifices, which may never have been carried out, but are purely poetic in nature. In Virgil's Aeneid a black sheep is sacrificed to her and in Ovid's Fasti a black chicken.
Others
The asteroid (3908) Nyx and the Pluto moon Nix were named after the goddess Nyx .
literature
- Clémence Ramnoux , La nuit et les enfants de la nuit dans la tradition grecque ; Paris, Flammarion 1959
- Christine Walde , Nyx ; In: The New Pauly
- Karl Kerényi , The Mythology of the Greeks - The Heroes Tales ; Munich (dtv) 1992 ( ISBN 3-423-30031-0 )
- Michael Grant and John Hazel, Lexicon of Ancient Myths and Figures , Munich (dtv) 1980 ( ISBN 3-423-32508-9 )
- Robert von Ranke-Graves , Greek Mythology , Reinbek near Hamburg (Rowohlt) 2003 ( ISBN 3-499-55404-6 )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hesiod : Theogony 116-124.
- ↑ a b Orpheus : Argonautika 12.
- ↑ Orpheus: Fragments 101 f.
- ↑ Aristophanes : The birds 690–703.
- ↑ Aristotle : Metaphysics 1071b 26.
- ↑ Hesiod: Theogony 124 f.
- ↑ Hesiod: Theogony 211-225.
- ↑ Homer : Iliad 14,231.
- ↑ Bakchylides : Fragment 1B.
- ↑ Bakchylides: Fragment 7.
- ↑ Aeschylus : Eumenides 321; 415; 745; 961
- ^ Lycophron : Alexandra 432.
- ↑ Derveni Papyrus
- ↑ Orpheus: Hymn 7
- ↑ Aristophanes : The Birds 685; 1190.
- ↑ Virgil : Aeneas 6,250.
- ^ Ovid : Metamorphoses 4, 453.
- ↑ Seneca : Hercules Furens 1068.
- ↑ Cicero : De natura deorum 3, 17.
- ^ Hyginus : Fabulae Prefatio.
- ^ Pausanias : Travels in Greece 7, 5, 3.
- ↑ Quintus of Smyrna : Posthomerica 2, 549.
- ↑ Johannes Tzetzes : Scholium zu Lykophron
- ↑ Plutarch : De sera numinis vindicta 566c.
- ^ Pausanias : Travels in Greece 1, 40, 6.
- ↑ Virgil : Aeneis 6, 249 f.
- ^ Ovid : Fasti 1, 455.