In
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 co ...
, Epiales (
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
: Ἠπιάλης) was the spirit (
daemon
Daimon or Daemon (Ancient Greek: , "god", "godlike", "power", "fate") originally referred to a lesser deity or guiding spirit such as the daimons of ancient Greek religion and mythology and of later Hellenistic religion and philosophy.
The word ...
) and personification of
nightmare
A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. The dream may contain situations of d ...
s. Alternate spellings of the name were Epialos (Ἠπίαλος), Epioles (Ἠπιόλης), Epialtes (Ἐπιάλτης) or Ephialtes (Ἐφιάλτης).
Family
Epiales was probably numbered amongst the
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 b ...
(Dream-Spirits) and thus one of the sons of the goddess
Nyx (Night).
Mythology
Epiales was also known as Melas Oneiros (Black Dream).
"The words ''epialos'', ''epiales'' and ''epioles'' denote (1) the feverish chill (2) the daimon who assaults sleepers. Homer and most writers have ''epioles'' with the ''e''; the form in -''os'' means something different, namely the feverish chill . . . Alkaios (Alcaeus) called it ''epialos''. Apollonios says that Epialtes itself (the nighmare daimon) is called Epiales and by a change of ''a'' to ''o'' Epioles."
" he_goddess_Gaia_(Earth)_is_invoked_to_drive_away_a_nightmare_:.html" ;"title="Gaia.html" ;"title="he goddess Gaia">he goddess Gaia (Earth) is invoked to drive away a nightmare :">Gaia.html" ;"title="he goddess Gaia">he goddess Gaia (Earth) is invoked to drive away a nightmare :Like a spider, he [a rapist] is carrying me [a woman] seaward step by step--a nightmare (''oneiros''), a black nightmare (''melas oneiros'')! Oh! Oh! Mother Earth (Ma Ge), mother Earth (Ma Ge), avert his fearful cries! O father Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
, son of Ge (Earth)!"[Aeschylus, ''Suppliant Women'' 886 ff. ]
See also
*
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 b ...
*
Phobetor
In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'', Phobetor ('Frightener'), so called by men, or Icelos ('Like'), so called by the gods, is one of the thousand sons of Somnus (Sleep). He appeared in dreams "in the form of beast or bird or the long serpent".
According ...
Notes
References
*
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
, translated in two volumes. 2. ''Suppliant Women'' by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
Greek sleep deities
Greek gods
Sleep deities
Personifications in Greek mythology
Dream
Fear
Nightmares in fiction
{{Greek-deity-stub