We learn, in Illiad, that Zeus fears her fury more than anything else. In Theogony, her home is in Tartarus, the underworld, where she gave birth to all the deities and creatures of the Night. There aren’t many surviving mythological stories that focus on her, yet she’s ever-present in the backdrop. She appears to exist at the beginning of creation, marking her a primordial entity and not part of the well-known Olympians. She’s the daughter of Chaos, the place and time that predates creation and represents the gap between Heaven and Earth. Nyx is the personification of the night itself. So, if you’re ready to dive into the dreamland and meet the Night… proceed! 1. They’d personify hope, war, thunder, death, and yes you guessed it sleep and dreams!īut what’s interesting is that a whole philosophical system that underlines Greek mythology emerges once you analyze the relationship and function of these Gods. Greek mythology has a God (theos or daemon) for every thought and emotion. Objects, animals, plants, places, etc have a spirit.īy ascribing human qualities and traits to, otherwise, abstract and inanimate concepts they were able to relate and make sense of mysteries of the world.Īncient Greeks weren’t that different, albeit more sophisticated since they weaved this concept to their stories and mythology.

In fact, one of the most ancient beliefs that persisted until very recently is animism. They used myths and deities to map the world around them. See, mythology was deeply embedded into their daily lives. It might be hard for a modern human to comprehend the way ancient civilizations perceived these concepts. We have the tools to answer these questions with accuracy. Why we sleep, how much, how many dreams per night, etc. We have an abundance of information, research, and studies available online to dissect the very nature of our sleep and dreams. Nowadays, science allows us to explain various natural phenomena and biological processes.

Dreams of gods and monsters book