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Ponos or Ponus (
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 ...
: Πόνος ''Pónos'') is the personification of hardship or toil.


Family


Hesiod

According to Hesiod's ''
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 10 ...
'' (226–232), "painful" Ponos was the child of Eris (Strife), with no father, and the brother of many other personifications:


Cicero

According to
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
, Ponos's was called the son of the primordial gods, Nyx (Night) and
Erebus In Greek mythology, Erebus (; grc, Ἔρεβος, Érebos, "deep darkness, shadow".), or Erebos, is the personification of darkness and one of the primordial deities. Hesiod's ''Theogony'' identifies him as one of the first five beings in exis ...
(Darkness) and brother to other personifications:Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum'' 3.17
Their Aether_and_ Aether_and_ Hemera's.html"_;"title="Hemera.html"_;"title="Aether_(mythology).html"_;"title="nowiki/>Aether_(mythology)">Aether_and_Hemera">Hemera's">Hemera.html"_;"title="Aether_(mythology).html"_;"title="nowiki/>Aether_(mythology)">Aether_and_Hemera">Hemera'sbrothers_and_sisters,_whom_the_ancient_genealogists_name_Cupid.html" ;"title="Hemera">Hemera's.html" ;"title="Hemera.html" ;"title="Aether_(mythology).html" ;"title="nowiki/>Aether (mythology)">Aether and Hemera">Hemera's">Hemera.html" ;"title="Aether_(mythology).html" ;"title="nowiki/>Aether (mythology)">Aether and Hemera">Hemera'sbrothers and sisters, whom the ancient genealogists name Cupid">Amor/ Eros (Love), Dolos (mythology), Dolus (Guile), Deimos (deity), Metus/ Deimos (deity), Deimos (Fear), Labor/ Ponus (Toil), Nemesis, Invidentia/ Nemesis (Envy), Moros, Fatum/ Moros (Fate), Senectus/
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 ...
(Old Age), Mors/
Thanatos In Greek mythology, Thanatos (; grc, Θάνατος, pronounced in "Death", from θνῄσκω ''thnēskō'' "(I) die, am dying") was the personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appe ...
(Death),
Tenebrae Tenebrae (—Latin for "darkness") is a religious service of Western Christianity held during the three days preceding Easter Day, and characterized by gradual extinguishing of candles, and by a "strepitus" or "loud noise" taking place in total ...
/
Keres In Greek mythology, the Keres (; Ancient Greek: Κῆρες), singular Ker (; Κήρ), were female death-spirits. They were the goddesses who personified violent death and who were drawn to bloody deaths on battlefields. Although they were pre ...
(Darkness), Miseria/
Oizys In Greek mythology, Oizys (; grc, Ὀϊζύς, Oïzýs) is the goddess of misery, anxiety, grief, depression, and misfortune. Her Roman name is Miseria, from which the English word ''misery'' is derived. Oizys is a minor goddess without a great ...
(Misery), Querella/
Momus Momus (; Ancient Greek: Μῶμος ''Momos'') in Greek mythology was the personification of satire and mockery, two stories about whom figure among Aesop's Fables. During the Renaissance, several literary works used him as a mouthpiece for their ...
(Complaint), Gratia/
Philotes In Greek mythology, Philotes (; Ancient Greek: ) was a minor goddess or spirit ('' daimones'') personifying affection, friendship, and sex. Family Philotes was a daughter of the primordial deities Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). Hesiod ...
(Favour),
Fraus In Roman mythology, Fraus was the goddess or personification of treachery and fraud. She was daughter of Orcus Orcus ( la, Orcus) was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Etruscan and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the nam ...
/ Apate (Fraud), Pertinacia (Obstinacy), the
Parcae In ancient Roman religion and myth, the Parcae (singular, Parca) were the female personifications of destiny who directed the lives (and deaths) of humans and gods. They are often called the Fates in English, and their Greek equivalent were the ...
/
Moirai In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai (, also spelled Moirae or Mœræ; grc, Μοῖραι, "lots, destinies, apportioners"), often known in English as the Fates ( la, Fata, Fata, -orum (n)=), were the personifications of fat ...
(Fates), the
Hesperides In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (; , ) are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides () from their reputed father, the Titan Atlas ...
, the Somnia/ Oneiroi (Dreams): all of these are fabled to be the children of
Erebus In Greek mythology, Erebus (; grc, Ἔρεβος, Érebos, "deep darkness, shadow".), or Erebos, is the personification of darkness and one of the primordial deities. Hesiod's ''Theogony'' identifies him as one of the first five beings in exis ...
(Darkness) and
Nox In atmospheric chemistry, is shorthand for nitric oxide () and nitrogen dioxide (), the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution. These gases contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain, as well as affecting tropos ...
/ Nyx (Night).


Philosophy

The Cynics promoted living a life of ''ponos.'' For the Cynics, this did not seem to mean actual physical work.
Diogenes of Sinope Diogenes ( ; grc, Διογένης, Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic (, ) or Diogenes of Sinope, was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynicism (philosophy). He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea ...
, for example, lived by begging, not by doing manual labor. Rather, it means deliberately choosing a hard life — for instance, wearing only that thin cloak and going barefoot in winter.


Notes


References

* Caldwell, Richard, ''Hesiod's Theogony'', Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). . *
Marcus Tullius Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
, ''Nature of the Gods from the Treatises of M.T. Cicero'' translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1812-1891), Bohn edition of 1878
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Greek gods Personifications in Greek mythology Cynicism Children of Nyx Children of Eris (mythology) {{Greek-deity-stub