![]() ![]() Nyx is also the first principle in the opening chorus of Aristophanes' The Birds, which may be Orphic in inspiration. Phanes – the strange, monstrous, hermaphrodite Orphic demiurge – was the child or father of Nyx. Outside the cave, Adrasteia clashes cymbals and beats upon her tympanon, moving the entire universe in an ecstatic dance to the rhythm of Nyx's chanting. Cronus – who is chained within, asleep and drunk on honey – dreams and prophesies. Nyx occupies a cave or adyton, in which she gives oracles. In several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus Nyx, rather than Chaos, is the first principle from which all creation emerges. He disturbed Zeus only a few times after that, always fearing Zeus and running back to his mother, Nyx, who would have confronted Zeus with a maternal fury. Homer goes on to say that Zeus, fearing Nyx's anger, held his fury at bay and in this way Hypnos escaped the wrath of Zeus by appealing to his powerful mother. Zeus was furious and would have smote Hypnos into the sea if he had not fled to Nyx, his mother, in fear. He had once before put Zeus to sleep at the bidding of Hera, allowing her to cause Heracles (who was returning by sea from Laomedon's Troy) great misfortune. Roman-era bronze statuette of Nyx velificans or Selene ( Getty Villa) Homer Īt Iliad 14.249–61, Hypnos, the minor deity of sleep, reminds Hera of an old favor after she asks him to put Zeus to sleep. ![]()
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