Poseidon went through the ranks of soldiers and urged them on. While Zeus was heavy and dreamy with pleasure and sleep, Hypnos went to Poseidon and told him to increase his efforts in helping the Akhaians because Zeus was asleep. He stayed hidden until Hera had seduced Zeus. He turned himself into a bird and, before Zeus could see him, hid in the top of the trees on Mount Ida. He agreed to help her deceive Zeus for the hand of Pasithea, one of the Graces. For this new deception, Hypnos made Hera swear oaths of sincerity. She asked Hypnos to cast a spell of sleepiness on Zeus, but Hypnos was not agree. Hera offered Hypnos a golden throne, however she raised the offering when Hypnos reminded her of the only time he had dared cast sleep on Zeus. “Soft-eyed Hypnos (Sleep) came, embracing all his limbs, as a mother on seeing her dear son after a long absence folds him with her wings to her loving breast.” – Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments 929gĭuring the Trojan War, Hera wanted to distract Zeus from the battle so she could help the Akhaians. One of these, across the earth and the wide sea-ridges, goes his way quietly back and forth, and is kind to mortals, but the heart of the other one is iron, and brazen feelings without pity are inside his breast.” – Hesiod, Theogony 758 Never upon them does Helios, the shining sun, cast the light of his eye-beams, neither when he goes up the sky nor comes down from it. These are Hypnos and Thanatos, dread divinities. “ carries Hypnos (Sleep) in her arms, and he is Thanatos' (Death's) brother … And there the children of gloomy Nyx have their houses. With favouring aspect to my prayer incline, and save thy mystics in their works divine.” – Orphic Hymn 85 to Hypnos Thy pleasing gentle chains preserve the soul, and even the dreadful cares of death control for Thanatos (Death), and Lethe (Forgetfulness) with oblivious stream, mankind thy genuine brothers justly deem. Tamer of cares, to weary toil repose, and from whom sacred solace in affliction flows. ‘Tis thine all bodies with benignant mind in other bands than those of brass to bind. Hypnos, king of Gods, and men of mortal birth, sovereign of all, sustained by mother earth for thy dominion is supreme alone, over all extended, and by all things known. “To Hypnos (Sleep), Fumigation from Poppies. Nor bearded ears in fields, nor sands upon the shore. Stuff'd with black plumes, and on an ebon-sted:īlack was the cov'ring too, where lay the God,Īnd slept supine, his limbs display'd abroad:Īnd mock their forms the leaves on trees not more, On creaking hinges turn'd, to break his sleep.īut in the gloomy court was rais'd a bed, No door there was th' unguarded house to keep, Night from the plants their sleepy virtue drains,Īnd passing, sheds it on the silent plains: The palace moats, and o'er the pebbles creeps,Īnd with soft murmurs calls the coming sleeps.Īnd all cool simples that sweet rest bestow Nor trees with tempests rock'd, nor human cry ĭwells here, and a dumb quiet next to death. Nor beast of Nature, nor the tame are nigh, Nor watchful dogs, nor the more wakeful geese,ĭisturb with nightly noise the sacred peace No crowing cock does there his wings display, Nor setting, visits, nor the lightsome noon His brother is Thanatos, God of Peaceful Death. Through the Gates of Horn come prophetic dreams, and through the Gates of Ivory come deceptive dreams which mislead. Hypnos opens two gates, the Gates of Horn and Ivory, through which Oniros comes into the minds of men. Hypnos delivers mortals from pain and mental suffering, with the help of his sons and his brother Oniros (Dream) he colours their sleep with dreams. Morpheus appears in human form in our dreams, Phobetor as birds and animals, and Phantasus as all the animate objects of our dreams. Together they have three children, Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasus who occupy the dreams of men. He is most beloved of the Muses, and his spouse is Pasithea, one of the Charities. He carries a drinking horn, from which he pours sleep-inducing opium. Hypnos is a gentle and benevolent god who sometimes takes the form of a singing bird, sometimes that of a winged youth or old man. The cave is surrounded by opium poppies and other sleep-inducing herbs. Hypnos dwells with his twin brother Thanatos, god of Death, in a dark cave by the banks of the river Lethe (Oblivion), at the entrance to Hades. His father is Erebus, the pure darkness of Hades, the Underworld. Hypnos the Bountiful, as he was known by the ancients, rests in the arms of his mother Nyx (Night).
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