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Night (mythology)
Nyx (; , , "Night") is the Greek goddess and personification of night. 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). She is the first child of Chaos. 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. Mythology and literature Hesiod In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', Nyx is born of Chaos. With Erebus (Darkness), Nyx gives birth to Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). 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). In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod loca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of many are still unknown. Life and career Formative years William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France, on 30 November 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants.Wissman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oneiroi
In Greek mythology, dreams were sometimes personified as Oneiros () or Oneiroi (). In the ''Iliad'' of Homer, Zeus sends an Oneiros to appear to Agamemnon in a dream, while in Hesiod's ''Theogony'', the Oneiroi are the sons of Nyx (Night), and brothers of Hypnos (Sleep). Oneiros was also, according to some myths, the name of one of the sons of Achilles with Deidamia.Photius, ''Bibliotheca excerpts'190.20/ref> Sources For the ancient Greeks, dreams were not generally personified. However, a few instances of the personification of dreams, some perhaps solely poetic, can be found in ancient Greek sources. In Homer's ''Iliad'', Zeus decides to send a "baleful dream" to Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek army during the Trojan War. An Oneiros is summoned by Zeus, and ordered to go to the camp of the Greeks at Troy and deliver a message from Zeus urging him to battle. The Oneiros goes quickly to Agamemnon's tent, and finding him asleep, stands above Agamemnon's head, and taking ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theogony
The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines. Descriptions Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony. The initial state of the universe is chaos, a dark indefinite void considered a divine primordial condition from which everything else appeared. Theogonies are a part of Greek mythology which embodies the desire to articulate reality as a whole; this universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first later projects of speculative theorizing. Further, in the "Kings and Singers" passage (80–103) Hesiod appropriates to himself the authority u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as an individual persona with an active role to play in his subject.' Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping. Life The dating of Hesiod's life is a contested issue in scholarly circles (''see § Dating below''). Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations. However, Hesiod's extant work comprises several didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three explicit references in ''Works and Days'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life". Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as "God"), whereas polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle. Nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity, but may accept a pantheon of deities which live, die and may be reborn like any other being. Although most monotheistic religions traditionall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Personification
Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their breath", and covers cases where a personification appears as a character in literature, or a human figure in art. The technical term for this, since ancient Greece, is prosopopoeia. In the arts many things are commonly personified. These include numerous types of places, especially cities, countries and the four continents, elements of the natural world such as the months or Four Seasons, Four Elements, Four Winds, Five Senses, and abstractions such as virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins, the nine Muses, or death. In many polytheistic early religions, deities had a strong element of personification, suggested by descriptions such as "god of". In ancient Greek religion, and the related ancient Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Night Deities
A night deity is a goddess or god in mythology associated with night, the night sky, or darkness. They commonly feature in polytheism, polytheistic religions. The following is a list of night deities in various mythologies. Arabian mythology, Arabian * Al-Qaum, Nabataeans, Nabatean god of war and the night, and guardian of caravans Aztec mythology, Aztec * Lords of the Night, a group of nine gods, each of whom ruled over a particular night * Itzpapalotl, fearsome skeletal goddess of the stars * Metztli, god or goddess of the moon, night, and farmers * Tezcatlipoca, god of the night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the earth, obsidian, enmity, discord, rulership, divination, temptation, jaguars, sorcery, beauty, war, and strife * Tzitzimimeh, skeletal goddesses of the stars * Yohaulticetl, the lunar goddess known as the "Lady of the Night" Canaanite mythology, Canaanite * Shalim, god of dusk * Araphel, the divine darkness Egyptian mythology, Egyptian * Apep, the serpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, nature of the world, the lives and activities of List of Greek mythological figures, deities, Greek hero cult, heroes, and List of Greek mythological creatures, mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult (religious practice), cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of myth-making itself. The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral tradition, oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan civilization, Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC; eventually the myths of the heroes of the Trojan War and its after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nox (goddess)
Nyx (; , , "Night") is the Greek mythology, Greek goddess and personification List of night deities, of night. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation and mothered other personification, personified Deity, deities, such as Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), with Erebus (Darkness). She is the first child of Chaos. 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 (goddess), Nox. Mythology and literature Hesiod In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', Nyx is born of Chaos (mythology), Chaos. With Erebus (Darkness), Nyx gives birth to Aether (mythology), Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). Later, on her own, Nyx gives birth to Moros (Doom, Destiny), Keres (mythology), the Keres (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Indignation, Retribution), A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is described as one of the children of Aphrodite and Ares and, with some of his siblings, was one of the Erotes, a group of winged love gods. Etymology The Greek , meaning 'desire', comes from 'to desire, love', of uncertain etymology. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Cult and depiction Eros appears in ancient Greek sources under several different guises. In the earliest sources (the cosmogonies, the earliest philosophers, and texts referring to the mystery religions), he is one of the primordial gods involved in the coming into being of the cosmos. In later sources, however, Eros is represented as the son of Aphrodite, whose mischievous interventions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eris (mythology)
Eris (; grc-gre, Ἔρις ', "Strife") is the Greek goddess of strife and discord. Her Roman equivalent is Discordia, which means the same. Eris's Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Roman counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona. The dwarf planet Eris is named after the goddess. She had no temples in ancient Greece and functions essentially as a personification, as which she appears in Homer and many later works. Etymology ''Eris'' is of uncertain etymology; connections with the verb , 'to raise, stir, excite', and the proper name have been suggested. R. S. P. Beekes rejects these derivations and suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Characteristics in Greek mythology In Hesiod's ''Works and Days'' 11–24, two different goddesses named Eris are distinguished: So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geras
In Greek mythology, Geras ( grc, Γῆρας, translit=Gễras), also written Gēras, was the god of old age. He was depicted as a tiny, shriveled old man. Gēras's opposite was Hebe, the goddess of youth. His Roman equivalent was Senectus. He is known primarily from vase depictions that show him with the hero Heracles; the mythic story that inspired these depictions has been lost. Family According to Hesiod, Geras was a son of Nyx. Hyginus adds that his father was Erebus. Hesiod's account And Nyx (Night) bore hateful Moros (Doom) and black Ker (Violent Death) and Thanatos (Death), and she bore Hypnos (Sleep) and the tribe of Oneiroi (Dreams). And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Momos (Blame) and painful Oizys (Misery) and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bore the Moirai (Destinies) and ruthless avenging Keres (Death Fates), Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
