Hypnos

[5] According to the Dutch linguist Robert S. P. Beekes, the god's name derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *sup-no- 'sleep'.

According to rumors, Hypnos lived in a big cave, which the river Lethe ("Forgetfulness") comes from and where night and day meet.

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.

[7][8] Hypnos lived next to his twin[9] brother, Thanatos (Θάνατος, 'death'), in the underworld, where the rays of the sun never reached them.

She wove flowers through her hair, put on three brilliant pendants for earrings, and donned a wondrous robe.

So she had Hypnos put Zeus to sleep, and set blasts of angry winds upon the sea while Heracles was still sailing home.

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.

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.

[18] According to a passage in Deipnosophistae, the sophist and dithyrambic poet Licymnius of Chios[19] 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.

An example of one vase that Hypnos is featured on is called "Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus," which is part of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston's collection.

In this vase, Hypnos is shown as a winged god dripping Lethean water upon the head of Ariadne as she sleeps.

The most recent discovery took place in 1988 in Almedinilla (also in Spain), where bronze statue almost intact of Hypnos was found in a Roman villa dated in the 2nd century A.D.