Erebus

"Darkness." Erebus is the male personification of darkness, one of the firstborn. He is a son of Chaos, brother and husband of Nyx and by her the father of Aether and Hemera,1 or of Eros.2 Erebus is also mentioned as the son of Chronos and Ananke.2

Hyginus3 and Cicero4 enumerate many personifications of abstract notions as the offspring of Erebus. The name signifies darkness, and is therefore applied also the the dark and gloomy space under the earth, through which the shades pass into Hades.5

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References

Notes

  1. Hesiod. Theogony, 123.
  2. Orphic Fragment 54.
  3. Hyginus. Fabulae: Preface.
  4. Fabulae, 1.
  5. On the Nature of the Gods iii, 17.
  6. Homer. Iliad viii, 368.

Sources

  • Bartelink, Dr. G.J.M. (1988). Prisma van de mythologie. Utrecht: Het Spectrum.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.