Hypnos (deity)

Symbols: poppy, upside-down torch, drinking horn, dripping branch

Culture: Greco-Roman

Mother: Nyx

Father: Erebus

Siblings: Aether, Charon, Epiphron, Eris, Geras, Hecate, Hemera, Lyssa, Momus, Moros, Nemesis, Oizys, Thanatos, The Fates, The Furies, The Keres

Children: The Oneiroi—Morpheus, Phantasos, and Phobetor

Hypnos was the Greek god of sleep, a deity who relieved the pain and suffering of mortals by bringing them peaceful slumber. One of the first generation of ancient Greek gods, Hypnos was the son of Nyx, goddess of night, and Erebus, god of darkness. Hypnos lived on the island of Lemnos in a dark cave deep in the underworld. Nearby was the river Lethe, the waters of forgetfulness. Hypnos lived with his twin brother Thanatos, god of death.

Despite being the child of darkness and night, Hypnos was viewed as a peaceful god. The Greeks believed that with his mother Nyx, he flew through the night sky, strewing poppies across the earth below. The poppy is a flower from which opium, a sleep-inducing compound, is made. It is the most common symbol for Hypnos. Other symbols include an upside-down torch, suggesting the dousing of the light of wakefulness; a branch dripping with water from the river Lethe; and a drinking horn filled with opium. Hypnos is often depicted as a gentle youth with wings growing either from his shoulders or temples.

Hypnos was married to Pasithea, the youngest of the Graces and a deity of relaxation, meditation, and visions. The couple had three sons named Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos. Known as dream-givers, they were called the Oneiroi, the Greek word for dream.

The English word hypnosis, meaning "sleeplike state," comes from Hypnos. The English word morphine, the name of a narcotic made from opium, derives from his son Morpheus. The Romans, who adopted many Greek deities, gave Hypnos the Latin name Somnus. Meaning "sleep," this Latin word gave rise to somnambulate, a word meaning "sleepwalk."

In Mythology

Hypnos appears in several Greek myths, usually as the agent of some other deity who seeks to use Hypnos’s power of sleep for his or her own ends. One such myth is the tale of Selene and Endymion. When Selene, goddess of the moon, fell in love with the mortal shepherd Endymion, she begged Zeus to make him immortal. When Zeus refused, Selene appealed to Hypnos. Although he could not give Endymion eternal life, Hypnos agreed to bestow upon the shepherd eternal sleep. This would allow Endymion to remain young and handsome forever. And Hypnos let the mortal sleep with his eyes open; in this way, his gaze would fall upon Selene for all eternity.

Another myth that involves Hypnos centers on the goddess queen Hera, who was angry with Hercules, the mortal son of her husband Zeus, king of the gods. Hera wished to punish Hercules but feared what might happen if Zeus witnessed her actions. So Hera asked Hypnos to put Zeus to sleep. When he awoke, Zeus was furious that a lesser deity had dared to use his power against him. Seeking revenge, Zeus thundered through the realms of the gods until he finally found Hypnos hiding in his mother’s arms. The sight cooled Zeus’s rage, so he let Hypnos off with a warning to never to trick him into sleeping again.

Hypnos also appears in Homer’sIliad, the epic poem of ancient Greece set during the Trojan War. The war was going badly for the Greeks, sometimes referred to as the Achaeans. Fearing they would lose to Troy, Hera wanted to intervene. Zeus, however, who enjoyed watching the war’s progress from his perch on Mount Ida, had forbidden the other immortal deities from intervening. Hera schemed with her brother Poseidon to come to the aid of the Achaeans, but first, she needed to distract Zeus. So once again, she appealed to Hypnos. Remembering Zeus’s warning, Hypnos refused, even after Hera offered him a golden throne. Instead, Hypnos named a different price: Hera must let him marry Pasithea, one of the Graces, the goddesses of goodness, charm, and beauty. When Hera agreed, Hypnos fulfilled his end of the bargain. Turning himself into a bird, he flew to a treetop, where he hid until Hera finished seducing Zeus. Then Hypnos emerged and put Zeus to sleep. Still in the form of a bird, he flew off to let Poseidon know that Zeus was sleeping. The god of the sea roared across the battlefield, urging the Achaeans on. By the time Zeus awoke again, the tide had turned against the Trojans. Zeus never discovered Hera’s deception or the part Hypnos had played in the scheme.

Hypnos played a role in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. King Aietes told Jason he could take the Golden Fleece once he had fought off some fierce challengers. Despite Jason’s success, the king refused to honor his promise, so Jason’s only alternative was to steal the fleece, which was guarded by a dragon. Aietes’s daughter, the sorceress Medea, asked Hypnos for help. He put the dragon to sleep, allowing Jason to escape with the fleece.

Origins and Cults

The Greeks believed in a whole family of deities that personified night, death, and the underworld. These beings were the children of Nyx and Erebus, primordial beings who were among the first deities that, according to the Greeks, were born out of Chaos. As one of the children of Nyx and Erebus, Hypnos had many siblings, all of whom represented some type of darkness of spirit. Among these were Moros, god of doom; Eris, goddess of discord; and Lyssa, goddess of rage and madness. (Eris and Lyssa, however, have different parentage in some sources.) Hypnos’s twin was Thanatos, god of death. The Greeks saw Hypnos as gentler than Thanatos, yet they depicted him as death’s twin, emphasizing the connection between the two states of sleep and death. In repose, a sleeping person can appear to be another victim of Thanatos, death, which is often referred to as eternal sleep.

According to the Greeks, Hypnos brought sleep to the minds of mortals through one of two gates in his cave. If he opened the ivory gate, his sons, the Oneiroi, delivered deceptive dreams. If he opened the gate made of horn, the Oneiroi delivered prophetic dreams. The Greeks believed each of the Oneiroi brought a different quality to dreams. Morpheus, who could take human form, was the dream shaper. Phobeter, who appeared as a beast or other creature, created nightmares from mortals’ fears. Phantasos was a phantom spirit who took the form of inanimate objects, bringing them to life.

The Greeks did not develop a cult that worshipped his name. However, he is associated with the Greco-Roman cults of Hygieia, which arose to promote healing. These cults connected health of the body to sleep. Some statues of Hygieia depict her with a figure sleeping at her feet, believed by many to be Hypnos.

Bibliography

Hesiod. Hesiod’s Theogony. Trans. Richard Caldwell. Newburyport: Focus Information Group, 1987. Print.

Day, Malcolm. 100 Characters from Classical Mythology. London: Quarto, Inc., 2007. Print.

Grant, Michael. Who’s Who in Classical Mythology. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Montiglio, Sylvia. The Spell of Hypnos: Sleep and Sleeplessness in Ancient Greek Literature. London: I.B. Tauris, 2015. Print.

Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Alexander Pope. Indianapolis: Ex Fontibus, 2012. Print.