Hypnos (Ancient Greek: Ὕπνος) is the personification of sleep and the twin brother of Thanatos the personification of death. Hypnos lives in Tartarus with his mother Nyx and his siblings such as the Oneiroi, the Fates, Thanatos, Hecate, Hemera and others. He lives in a cave in Tartarus right next to the river Lethe, the river of Forgetfulness.
Etymology[]
The name "Hypnos" was the literal word for sleep in ancient Greek[1] and according to the Dutch linguist Robert S. P. Beekes, the god's name derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *sup-no- 'sleep'.[2]
The English word "hypnosis" is derived from his name, referring to the fact that when hypnotized, a person is put into a sleep-like state (hypnos "sleep" + -osis "condition").[3] Additionally, the English word "insomnia" comes from the Latin name of his Roman counterpart, Somnus. (in- "not" + somnus "sleep"), Hypnos as well as a few less-common words such as "somnolent", meaning sleepy or tending to cause sleep. Consequently, the condition for someone who cannot or has difficulty falling asleep is "insomniac."
Family[]
Hypnos lived next to his twin[4] brother, Thanatos (Θάνατος, 'death'), in the underworld, where the rays of the sun never reached them.[5]
In Hesiod's Theogony, Hypnos is one of the offspring of Nyx, primordial goddess of the night without a father.[6] Hypnos is then full brother to Thanatos, the Moirai, the Keres, the Oneiroi, the Hesperides and many others. And he is a half-brother to Aether and Hemera since their father is Erebus, personification of darkness.
Hypnos is the husband of Pasithea, youngest of the Graces, and is promised to him by Hera.[7]
In genealogies from works by Roman authors, he is the son of Erebus (Darkness) and Nox (Night).[8] Ovid names him the father of the Oneiroi, gods of dreams.[9]
Description[]
Sleep and His Half-Brother Death, by John William Waterhouse, 1874
Hypnos is usually the fatherless son of Nyx. His twin brother is Thanatos. Both siblings live in the underworld (Hades). According to rumors, Hypnos lived in a big cave, which the river Lethe comes from and where night and day meet. They call this area the Land of Dreams. His bed is made of ebony, and on the entrance of the cave grow several poppies and other soporific plants. No light and no sound would ever enter his grotto.
According to Homer, he lives on the island Lemnos, which later on has been claimed to be his very own dream island. He is said to be a calm and gentle god, as he helps humans in need and, due to their sleep, owns half of their lives.
Pausanias wrote that Hypnos was the dearest friend of the Muses.[10]
Hypnos was depicted as a young man with wings on his shoulders or brow. His attributes included either a horn of sleep-inducing opium, a poppy-stem, a branch dripping water from the river Lethe, or an inverted torch.
His horn of sleep-inducing opium was used to lull both mortals and gods to sleep. Hypnos would then open two gates that the Oneiroi used to get through to the minds of people, causing them to dream. The Gate of Horn provided prophetic dreams, while The Gate of Ivory provided dreams that are misleading and deceptive. But the dreams each person would have depended on the individual.
Mythology[]
Hypnos in the Iliad[]
Hypnos was able to trick Zeus and help the Danaans win the Trojan War. During the war, Hera loathed her brother and husband, Zeus, so she devised a plot to trick him. She decided that to trick him she needed to make him so enamored with her that he would fall for the trick. So she washed herself with ambrosia and anointed herself with oil, made especially for her to make herself impossible for Zeus to resist. She wove flowers through her hair, put on three brilliant pendants for earrings, and donned a wondrous robe. She then called for Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and asked her for a charm that would ensure that her trick would not fail. To procure the charm, however, she lied to Aphrodite because they sided on opposite sides of the war. She told Aphrodite that she wanted the charm to help herself and Zeus stop fighting. Aphrodite willingly agreed. Hera was almost ready to trick Zeus, but she needed the help of Hypnos, who had tricked Zeus once before.[11]
Hera called on Hypnos and asked him to help her by putting Zeus to sleep. Hypnos was reluctant because the last time he had put the god to sleep, he was furious when he awoke. It was Hera who had asked him to trick Zeus the first time as well. She was furious that Heracles, Zeus' son, sacked the city of the Trojans. So she had Hypnos put Zeus to sleep, and set blasts of angry winds upon the sea while Heracles was still sailing home. When Zeus awoke he was furious and went on a rampage looking for Hypnos. Hypnos managed to avoid Zeus by hiding with his mother, Nyx. This made Hypnos reluctant to accept Hera's proposal and help her trick Zeus again. Hera first offered him a beautiful golden seat that can never fall apart and a footstool to go with it. He refused this first offer, remembering the last time he tricked Zeus. Hera finally got him to agree by promising that he would be married to Pasithea, one of the youngest Graces, whom he had always wanted to marry. Hypnos made her swear by the river Styx and call on the gods of the underworld to be witnesses so that he would be ensured that he would marry Pasithea.[12]
Hera went to see Zeus on Gargarus, the topmost peak of Mount Ida. Zeus was extremely taken by her and suspected nothing as Hypnos was shrouded in a thick mist and hidden upon a pine tree that was close to where Hera and Zeus were talking. Zeus asked Hera what she was doing there and why she had come from Olympus, and she told him the same lie she told Aphrodite. She told him that she wanted to go help her parent stop quarreling and she stopped there to consult him because she didn't want to go without his knowledge and have him be angry with her when he found out. Zeus said that she could go any time and that she should postpone her visit and stay there with him so they could enjoy each other's company. He told her that he was never in love with anyone as much as he loved her at that moment. He took her in his embrace and Hypnos went to work putting him to sleep, with Hera in his arms. While this went on, Hypnos traveled to the ships of the Achaeans to tell Poseidon, God of the Sea, that he could now help the Danaans and give them a victory while Zeus was sleeping. This is where Hypnos leaves the story, leaving Poseidon eager to help the Danaans. Thanks to Hypnos helping to trick Zeus, the war changed its course in Hera's favor, and Zeus never found out that Hypnos had tricked him one more time.[13]
Roman Sarcophagus of Selene and Endymion, Hypnos on the far right with wings on his head, pours a sleeping potion over Endymion. ca. 180 CE.
When Sarpedon fell, mortally wounded, he called on Glaucus to rescue his body and arms. Patroclus withdrew the spear he had embedded in Sarpedon, and as it left Sarpedon's body his spirit went with it. A violent struggle ensued over the body of the fallen king. The Greeks succeeded in gaining his armor (which was later given as a prize in the funeral games for Patroclus), but Zeus had Apollo rescue the corpse. Apollo took the corpse and cleaned it, then delivered it to Hypnos and Thanatos, who took it back to Lycia for funeral honors.
Hypnos and Endymion[]
According to a passage in Deipnosophistae, the sophist and dithyrambic poet Licymnius of Chios[14] tells a different tale about the Endymion myth, in which Hypnos loves Endymion and does not close the eyes of his beloved even while he is asleep, but lulls him to rest with eyes wide open so that he may without interruption enjoy the pleasure of gazing at them.[15]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ ὕπνος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
- ↑ Beekes, Robert (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill Publishers. p. 1535. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.
- ↑ "Hypnosis | Define Hypnosis at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 16.672
- ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 755-766
- ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 212
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 14.268–276
- ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 1 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95); Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.17.
- ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.633–643
- ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 202.31.3
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 14.154–250
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 14.242–280
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 14.290–365
- ↑ Licymnius is known only through a few quoted lines and second-hand through references (Smith, s.v. Licy'mnius).
- ↑ Licymnius, Fragment 771 (from Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric V)