Nyx
In the works of poets and playwrights, she lives at the ends of the Earth, and is often described as a black-robed goddess who drives through the sky in a chariot pulled by horses.
In ancient Greek art, Nyx often appears alongside other celestial deities such as Selene, Helios and Eos, as a winged figure driving a horse-pulled chariot.
[7] Without the assistance of a father, Nyx produces Moros (Doom, Destiny), Ker (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), the Keres, Nemesis (Indignation, Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Strife).
[12] The poet Bacchylides apparently considered Nyx to be the mother of Hemera by Chronos (Time),[13] and elsewhere mentions Hecate as her daughter.
According to Cicero, Aether and Dies (Day) are the children of Nox and Erebus, in addition to Amor (Love), Dolus (Guile), Metus (Fear), Labor (Toil), Invidentia (Envy), Fatum (Fate), Senectus (Old Age), Mors (Death), Tenebrae (Darkness), Miseria (Misery), Querella (Lamentation), Gratia (Favour), Fraus (Fraud), Pertinacia (Obstinacy), the Parcae, the Hesperides, and the Somnia (Dreams).
[17] In the genealogy given by the Roman mythographer Hyginus, Nox is the offspring of Chaos and Caligo (Mist), alongside Dies (Day), Erebus (Darkness), and Aether.
[18] With Erebus, she produces Fatum (Fate), Senectus (Old Age), Mors (Death), Letum (Destruction), Continentia (Strife), Somnus (Sleep), the Somnia (Dreams), Lysimeles (Thoughtfulness), Epiphron (Hedymeles), Porphyrion, Epaphus, Discordia (Discord), Miseria (Misery), Petulantia (Petulance), Nemesis, Euphrosyne (Cheerfulness), Amicitia (Friendship), Misericordia (Pity), Styx, the Parcae (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos), and the Hesperides (Aegle, Hesperia, and Erythea).
[32] When Hera comes to Hypnos and attempts to persuade him into lulling Zeus to sleep,[33] he refuses, reminding her of the last time she asked the same favour of him, when it had allowed her to persecute Heracles without her husband's knowledge.
[42] Hesiod locates the home of Nyx at the far western end of the Earth,[43] though it is unclear whether or not he considered it to be beyond Oceanus, the river which encircles the world.
[44] In a (somewhat confused) section of the Theogony, Hesiod seems to locate her home near the entrance to the underworld, and describes it as being "wrapped in dark clouds".
[53] In the cosmogony given by the comic playwright Antiphanes (4th century BC), as recorded by the Christian writer Irenaeus, Night is first deity to exist alongside Silence, and out of this initial pair comes Chaos.
The choral lyric poet Alcman (7th century BC), as recorded by a scholium on Sophocles, considered Nyx to live in the far north, describing the Riphean Mountains as being "breast of black night".
[60] In tragedy, the Orestes of Euripides (5th century BC) states that Nyx has her abode in Erebus,[61] while a fragment of Sophocles mentions the "springs of Night", which are located in the north.
[66] In a fragment from his Andromeda, he refers to her driving her chariot through Olympus,[67] and in his Orestes, he describes her as having wings,[68] while according to Aeschylus she wears a black robe which is "studded with colourful stars".
[81] In the Dionysiaca of Nonnus (5th century), the goddess Iris, on the request on Hera, approaches Hypnos in the "ugly form" of his mother Nyx, and in a lengthy speech persuades him to help set Zeus to sleep.
And in the boundless bosom of Erebus did black-winged Night at the very start bring forth a wind egg, from which as the seasons revolved came forth Eros the seductive, like to swift whirlwinds, his back aglitter with wings of gold.
In this work, he believes that Night is, by herself, the first being to exist (a position she loses in later Orphic theogonies), and that she produces an egg from which comes Eros (as she does in Aristophanes' parody), from whom all things arise.
[89] Alberto Bernabé [es] similarly sees these fragments as alluding to an "ancient" theogony (priscae Orphicae theogoniae) which centred around the birth of Eros from an egg, produced by "Chaos-Night".
[98] In addition, the Byzantine author John the Lydian writes in his De Mensibus that "three first beginnings of generation sprouted out, according to Orpheus: Night, Ge, and Ouranos",[99] a passage which scholars have seen as referring to the Eudemian Theogony.
[111] In the poem, Night was called the "immortal nurse of the gods" (as quoted in the Derveni papyrus),[112] and in its narrative she nurtures and gives shelter to the young Zeus.
[121] In the longest Orphic poem, the Rhapsodic Theogony, or Rhapsodies (1st century BC/AD),[122] though the first deity to exist is Chronos, several fragments appear to assign a primordial role to Night.
[129] Damascius similarly records that the two deities live together, while Proclus refers to the couple as the "two rulers in the sky ... seated eternally in the innermost shrine".
She directs him to use a "trick through honey", and then wait until Cronus is standing "under trees with high foliage, drunk with the works of loud-buzzing bees", before binding him.
is dedicated to Night, and describes her as the "mother of gods and men", who "gave birth to all";[158] in this role as a progenitor, she is addressed in the Hymn as Cypris (an epithet of Aphrodite).
[162] In ancient Greek and Roman art, Nyx is often difficult to identify, as she lacks a specific defined appearance,[163] and it can be hard to distinguish her from other deities, such as Selene and Eos.
[164] According to Pausanias, she was depicted on the chest of Cypselus (6th century BC) as the nurse of Hypnos and Thanatos, where she held the two gods, portrayed as children, in each of her hands.
[166] The earliest surviving representation of Nyx is an Attic lekythos (c. 500 BC), which shows her driving a two-horse chariot away from Helios, who is ascending into the sky in his quadriga at the start of the new day.
[168] On the lid of a 5th-century BC Athenian pyxis, for example, she is a winged figure driving a chariot pulled by four horses, with stars dotted above her head; she rides towards a column which signifies the edge of the world, and is followed by Selene and Helios (or Eos).
