Nyx
（
Νύξ), Nox or Night personified. Homer (
Hom. Il. 14.259, &c.) calls her the subduer of gods and men, and relates that Zeus himself stood in awe of her.
In the ancient cosmogonies Night is one of the very first created beings, for she is described as the daughter of Chaos, and the sister of Erebus, by whom she became the mother of Aether and Hemera. (lies.
Theog. 123, &c.)
According to the Orphics (
Argon. 14) she was the daughter of Eros.
She is further said, without any husband, to have given birth to Moros, the Keres, Thanatos, Hypnos, Dreams, Momus, Oizys, the Hesperides, Moerae, Nemesis, and similar beings. (
Hes. Th. 211, &c.; Cic.
de Nat. Deor. 3.17.)
In later poets, with whom she is merely the personification of the darkness of night, she is sometimes described as a winged goddess (
Eur. Orest. 176), and sometimes as riding in a chariot, covered with a dark garment and accompanied by the stars in her course. (
Eur. Ion 1150; Theocrit. ii. in fin.; Orph.
Hymn. 2. 7;
Verg. A. 5.721;
Tib. 2.1. 87;
V. Fl. 3.211.) Her residence was in the darkness of Hades. (
Hes. Th. 748; Eurip.
Orest. 175;
Verg. A. 6.390.)
A statue of Night, the work of Rhoecus, existed at Ephesus (
Paus. 10.38.3). On the chest of Cypselus she was represented carrying in her arms the gods of Sleep and Death, as two boys (5.18.1).
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