Nyx

Nyx, daughter of Chaos and personification of the night, was among the first Greek gods of the cosmos. She bore numerous children, both with her brother-consort Erebus as well as on her own, representing various personifications and abstractions.

Functions and Characteristics
As the personification of night, Nyx was associated with darkness (similar to her husband Erebus, himself the personification of darkness). She was viewed as an extremely powerful goddess or cosmic force: Homer described her as she who “bends to her sway both gods and men,”3 a goddess feared even by Zeus. The Romans associated Nyx with the hellish realm of death, magic, and witchcraft.4

Nyx rode through the heavens on a chariot drawn by black horses after Helios (the sun) had completed his daytime journey;5 in some accounts, she was accompanied by Sleep personified, who held the reins,6 and the dreams and stars moved in her baggage train.7 Poets often imagined her clad in finery symbolizing her nocturnal dominion: a black robe studded with stars,8 a wreath of poppy,9 or with black wings growing from her shoulders.10

Nyx was usually said to live with her daughter Hemera (“Day”) in the darkness of the Underworld, somewhere in the far west in a region sometimes considered interchangeable with Nyx’s consort Erebus;11 alternatively, her home was sometimes placed in the far north.

Nyx was respected and feared even by the most powerful of the Greek gods. In one myth, Hera had Hypnos, the god of sleep, put Zeus to sleep so that she could cause misfortune to Heracles (Zeus’ illegitimate son and her enemy). When Zeus woke up and discovered what had happened, he was on the verge of meting out a terrible punishment to Hypnos, but he held back for fear of Hypnos’ mother, Nyx. Thus, even the ruler of the Greek gods preferred to avoid upsetting Nyx.