Greek God

Erebus

Aeneas and the Sibyl in the Underworld by Jan Brueghel the Younger (ca. 1630s)

Aeneas and the Sibyl in the Underworld by Jan Brueghel the Younger (ca. 1630s).

The Metropolitan Museum of ArtPublic Domain

Overview

Grim Erebus was the personification of darkness. He was often imagined as one of the primordial gods, inhabiting the dark recesses of the earth near the Underworld. In the common tradition, Erebus was one of the two children of Chaos, the first entity of creation. He married his sister Nyx (“Night”), with whom he had numerous children, including Aether (“Upper Air”), Hemera (“Day”), and various other personifications and abstractions.

Etymology

The name “Erebus” (Greek Ἔρεβος, translit. Erebos) is usually thought to be derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁regʷ-os-, meaning “darkness” (similar to the Sanskrit rájas, Gothic riqiz, and Old Norse røkkr).[1]

Some scholars, however, have connected “Erebus” with the Semitic root ‘rb, meaning “to set as the sun, become dark” (compare to the Akkadian erebu and Hebrew erev, meaning “sunset”).[2]

Pronunciation

  • English
    Greek
    ErebusἜρεβος (translit. Erebos)
  • Phonetic
    IPA
    [ER-uh-buhs]/ˈɛr ə bəs/

Alternate Names

Erebus may be synonymous with Skotos (“Darkness”), who features in a cosmogonic poem by Alcman.[3]

Attributes

Erebus was associated primarily with darkness, especially the darkness of the Underworld. Indeed, Erebus’ name was often used as a term for the Underworld, more or less interchangeable with Hades or Tartarus.

Family

In the common account, known from Hesiod’s Theogony, Erebus was the child of Chaos, who begot him and his sister Nyx (“Night”) without a consort.[4] Some traditions, however, made Erebus the son of Chaos and Caligo (“Mist”),[5] while others made him the son of Chronos (“Time”) and Ananke (“Necessity”).[6]

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - La Nuit (1883)

La Nuit (The Night) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1883). Hillwood Estate, Washington, DC.

Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain

Family Tree

  • Parents
    Father
  • Siblings
    Sister
  • Consorts
    Wife
  • Children
    Daughter
    Sons
    • Hemera

Mythology

According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Erebus and his sister Nyx were born to Chaos at the beginning of the cosmos:

In truth at first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night.[12]

Erebus, the personification of darkness, then married Nyx, the personification of night, and fathered two children with her:

but of Night were born Aether and Day [Hemera], whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus.[13]

According to Hesiod, Nyx went on to have many more children on her own, without the help of her consort Erebus (among them the grim personifications Nemesis, Thanatos, and the Moirae).[14] According to other sources, however, Erebus was the father of these children as well (see above).

References

Notes

  1. Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 451.

  2. John P. Brown, Israel and Hellas (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1995), 1:57–58; Martin Bernal, Black Athena (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006), 3:171–73.

  3. Alcman, frag. 5 Campbell. The poem now survives only as a fragment.

  4. Hesiod, Theogony 123.

  5. Hyginus, preface to Fabulae.

  6. Orphic Theogonies frag. 54 West.

  7. Hyginus, preface to Fabulae.

  8. Oppian, Halieutica 4.10.

  9. Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 3.755.

  10. Hesiod, Theogony 124.

  11. In Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.17, the children of Erebus and Nyx are given as Eros (Passion), Apate (Guile), Phobos (Fear), Ponos (Toil), Nemesis (Retribution), Moros (Doom), Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death), the Keres (Fatalities), Oizys (Misery), Momos (Criticism), Philotes (Friendship), Apate (Deceit), Pertinacia (Obstinacy), the Moirae (Fates), the Hesperides, and the Oneiroi (Dreams). In Hyginus, preface to Fabulae, they are given as Ker (Fatality), Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death), Moros (Doom), Continentia (Continence), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Eros (Passion), Eris (Discord), Miseria (Wretchedness), Petulantia (Wantonness), Nemesis (Retribution), Euphrosyne (Merriment), Philotes (Friendship), Misericordia (Compassion), the Moirae (Fates), the Hesperides, Styx, Epiphron, Porphyrion, and Epaphus. Note that, according to Hesiod, many of these beings are the children only of Nyx, not of Erebus.

  12. Hesiod, Theogony 116–23, trans. H. G. Evelyn-White.

  13. Hesiod, Theogony 124–25, trans. H. G. Evelyn-White.

  14. Hesiod, Theogony 211ff.

Primary Sources

Greek

  • Hesiod: Erebus’ origins and mythology are outlined in Hesiod’s Theogony (seventh century BCE).

  • Aristophanes: A parodic (or semi-parodic) cosmogony in the comedy Birds (414 BCE) makes Erebus one of the first beings of the cosmos rather than a son of Chaos.

  • Plato: Timaeus (fourth century BCE) imagines a new philosophical cosmogony centered around a mysterious “Demiurge” rather than figures such as Erebus, Nyx, and Chaos.

Roman

  • Cicero: In the dialogue On the Nature of the Gods (first century BCE), Cicero lists the children of Erebus and Nyx.

  • Hyginus: The Fabulae, a Latin mythological handbook (first or second century CE), mentions Erebus and his children with Nyx.

Secondary Sources

Citation

Kapach, Avi. “Erebus.” Mythopedia, March 09, 2023. https://mythopedia.com/topics/erebus.

Kapach, Avi. “Erebus.” Mythopedia, 9 Mar. 2023. https://mythopedia.com/topics/erebus. Accessed on 24 Sep. 2024.

Kapach, A. (2023, March 9). Erebus. Mythopedia. https://mythopedia.com/topics/erebus

Authors

  • Avi Kapach

    Avi Kapach is a writer, scholar, and educator who received his PhD in Classics from Brown University

    Avi Kapach Profile Photo