Cult titles composed of compounds of nyx- are attested for several deities, most notably Dionysus Nyktelios "nocturnal" and Aphrodite Philopannyx "who loves the whole night". The Spartans had a cult of Sleep and Death, conceived of as twins. Thus there was a statue called "Night" in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. More often, Nyx was worshipped in the background of other cults. When you have ascended the citadel, which even at the present day is called Karia (Caria) from Kar (Car), son of Phoroneus, you see a temple of Dionysos Nyktelios (Nyctelius, Nocturnal), a sanctuary built to Aphrodite Epistrophia (She who turns men to love), an oracle called that of Nyx (Night) and a temple of Zeus Konios (Cronius, Dusty) without a roof. According to Pausanias, she had an oracle on the acropolis at Megara. There was no known temple dedicated to Nyx, but statues are known to have been made of her and a few cult practices of her are mentioned. When Eos' son Memnon was killed during the Trojan War, Eos made Helios (the sun god) downcast, and asked Nyx to come out earlier so that she would collect her son's dead body undetected by the Greek and the Trojan armies. Some authors made Nyx the mother of Eos, the dawn goddess, who was often conflated with Nyx's daughter Hemera.
In some accounts, Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, was also called the daughter of Night. In Virgil's Aeneid, Nox is said to be the mother of the Furies by Hades. The classical scholar Walter Burkert has speculated that the house of the goddess to which the philosopher is transported is the palace of Nyx.Īccording to the Roman mythographer Hyginus, Nyx's Roman equivalent Nox (Night) was, along with Aether (Brightness), Dies (Day), and Erebus, the offspring of Chaos and Caligio (Mist). The theme of Nyx's cave or mansion, beyond the ocean (as in Hesiod) or somewhere at the edge of the cosmos (as in later Orphism), may be echoed in the philosophical poem of Parmenides. 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. Nyx, as represented in the 10th-century Paris Psalter at the side of the Prophet Isaiah This tale is often cited as evidence that Zeus is fearful of Nyx. 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 maternal fury. Hypnos goes on to say that Zeus, fearing Nyx's anger, held his fury at bay and in this way he escaped the wrath of Zeus by appealing to his powerful mother. Zeus was furious and would have cast 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. In the Iliad of Homer, Hypnos, the minor deity of sleep, reminds Hera of an old favor after she asks him to put Zeus to sleep. Hesiod says further that Nyx's daughter Hemera (Day) left Tartarus just as Nyx (Night) entered it continuing cyclicly, when Hemera returned, Nyx left. In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod locates there the home of Nyx, and the homes of her children Hypnos and Thanatos. Later, on her own, Nyx gives birth to Moros (Doom, Destiny), the Keres (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Indignation, Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Friendship), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Strife). With Erebus (Darkness), Nyx gives birth to Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). In Hesiod's Theogony, Nyx is born of Chaos. Roman-era bronze statuette of Nyx velificans or Selene ( Getty Villa) Hesiod
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