Skip to main content

Nyx, the goddess of night



Not being one of the 12 Olympians, Nyx is a relatively unknown goddess with little lore or legends about her. Most of what we have are descriptions of her from other deities, though what we do know is fascinating. Even for a goddess, she was ancient, being among the first children of Chaos and the mother of many who unfortunately ended up more well known than her. That is perhaps why she was such a powerful goddess. Her age and her legacy made her fearsome. While we don't know much, what we do know is that she was strong. Strong enough to terrify Zeus, who was himself obviously exceedingly powerful and feared. In Homer's Illiad 8.15-20 it explicitly states about Zeus' strength:


ἐξάπτεσθε θεοὶ πᾶσαί τε θέαιναι: ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἂν ἐρύσαιτ᾽ ἐξ οὐρανόθεν πεδίον δὲ Ζῆν᾽ ὕπατον μήστωρ᾽, οὐδ᾽ εἰ μάλα πολλὰ κάμοιτε. ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ καὶ ἐγὼ πρόφρων ἐθέλοιμι ἐρύσσαι, αὐτῇ κεν γαίῃ ἐρύσαιμ᾽ αὐτῇ τε θαλάσσῃ: σειρὴν μέν κεν ἔπειτα περὶ ῥίον Οὐλύμποιο δησαίμην, τὰ δέ κ᾽ αὖτε μετήορα πάντα γένοιτο. τόσσον ἐγὼ περί τ᾽ εἰμὶ θεῶν περί τ᾽ εἴμ᾽ ἀνθρώπων. If all gods and goddesses took up a golden cord from the heavens, you would not be able to drag Zeus, highest counsellor, from the heavens, though you would try. But if I wished, I could drag you all and the sea up with the earth so that all was hanging from the cord. So great I am above gods and humans.


My homeric Greek is somewhat rusty, but I think the meaning comes across. Zeus is talking about how much more powerful he is than the others. He is the one saying this, but no one contradicted him on this point. And Nyx terrified him. Later, when Hypnos is talking about fleeing to Nyx to escape Zeus' wrath, we get this in Illiad 14.260:



ὃ δ᾽ ἐπεγρόμενος χαλέπαινε ῥιπτάζων κατὰ δῶμα θεούς, ἐμὲ δ᾽ ἔξοχα πάντων ζήτει: καί κέ μ᾽ ἄϊστον ἀπ᾽ αἰθέρος ἔμβαλε πόντῳ, εἰ μὴ Νὺξ δμήτειρα θεῶν ἐσάωσε καὶ ἀνδρῶν: 260τὴν ἱκόμην φεύγων, ὃ δ᾽ ἐπαύσατο χωόμενός περ. ἅζετο γὰρ μὴ Νυκτὶ θοῇ ἀποθύμια ἕρδοι. 		Waking up, he was violent, throwing the house of the gods. He sought me most of all. He would have thrown me to the sea from the heavens unseen, if Nyx, tamer of gods and humans, did not rescue me. I went to her, fleeing his anger. For he stood in awe of swift Nyx and would not anger her.

What's interesting here is that she is referred to as "δμήτειρα θεῶν [...] καὶ ἀνδρῶν", the "tamer of gods and humans". That's quite an appellation. As well, Zeus himself "stands in awe" of her. Both of those passages are from the Illiad, though she gets a passing mention in Hesiod's Theogony when the poet describes the gods' family tree at the beginning and when her home is described in line 744, where she lives with some of her children. The LSJ notes that the specific word1(ἅζετο) describing her relationship to Zeus translates to "stand in awe of, esp. gods and one's parents". Zeus is the one who stands in awe. While reading too much into a word, especially without looking at how it is used in multiple contexts, isn't wise, it's interesting to see something like that applied to the literal king of the gods relative to anything else. My interpretation is that it's less of a matter of respect, like one might have for parents, and more a matter of fear, like Greeks had for the gods. Zeus descended from Chaos by way of Gaia, who would have been a sister to Nyx, making Nyx his great aunt. Like all the gods, they were related, but Zeus didn't fear anyone else.

--------
1. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%28%2Fzeto&la=greek&can=a%28%2Fzeto0&prior=per&d=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133:book=14:card=242&i=1
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Circe's Powers

Circe, the female entity that attempted to trap Odysseus on his journey home, is an interesting figure who seems to occupy two worlds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary specifically calls her “powerful sorceress” 1 and she is called “goddess” a few times ( Odyssey 11.9 and 12.21). This sets her apart from other goddesses in the story because most of her actions come from the sorceress aspect, not the goddess. The nature of her magic, with it requiring touch to work and it being the only time in the Odyssey where this concept is used, lets her be viewed in a different light than, for example, Athena. For Circe, sorcery is her drugs and potions, which are called “bewitching” several times( Odyssey 10.339, 349) and her wand, which is called “magic”( Odyssey 10.314). Hermes also refers to what she does with drugs as a “magic spell”( Odyssey 10.311) when he gives Odysseus the herb. She does with sorcery what other goddesses would simply do as a result of them being goddess...
Post a Comment
Read more

Satan

Let’s talk about Satan, because why not? The entity that became the Satan of the New Testament and Christianity as a whole has its basis in the Old Testament. Note: basis. But it didn’t exist there in anything resembling the form that it took in later centuries. In the Old Testament, Satan is not a name like it tends to be used today. It’s just a word meaning “adversary”. In Hebrew, this is שָׂטָן and does not refer to this entity specifically. It is used multiple times thoughout the Old Testament to refer to multiple things. At one point, an angel of the lord was explicity referred to as שָׂטָן (Numbers 22:22). It seems like a general word for anything in the way. So, it is not necessarily clear what the entity is, though it is implied that it has some relation to the בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים, the sons of God (Job 1:6). The text does not specify exactly what it is, but makes it sound like a sort of cosmic pest in a celestial court, something under complete control of the Elohim. Everything i...
Read more