Erebus Explained

In Greek mythology, Erebus (;^[1] Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἔρεβος|Érebos|"darkness, gloom"),^[2] or Erebos, is the personification of darkness. In Hesiod's Theogony, he is the offspring of Chaos, and the father of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Nyx (Night); in other Greek cosmogonies, he is the father of Aether, Eros, and Metis, or the first ruler of the gods.

In genealogies given by Roman authors, he begets a large progeny of personifications upon Nox (the Roman equivalent of Nyx), while in an Orphic theogony, he is the offspring of Chronos (Time).

The name "Erebus" is also used to refer either to the darkness of the Underworld, the Underworld itself, or the region through which souls pass to reach Hades, and can sometimes be used as a synonym for Tartarus or Hades.

Etymology

The meaning of the word Érebos (Ἔρεβος) is "darkness" or "gloom", referring to that of the Underworld.^[3] It derives from the Proto-Indo-European ("darkness"), and is cognate with the Sanskrit rájas ("dark (lower) air, dust"), the Armenian erek ("evening"), the Gothic riqis, and the Old Norse røkkr ("dark, dust").^[4]

Personification of darkness

In a number of Greek cosmogonies, Erebus is described as one of the first beings to exist. In Hesiod's Theogony (late 8th century BC), which the Greeks considered the "standard" account of the origin of the gods,^[5] he is the offspring of Chaos, alongside Nyx (Night).^[6] In the first instance of sexual intercourse, he mates with Nyx, producing Aether and Hemera (Day),^[7] the pair of which represent the personified opposites of their parents.^[8] The Neoplatonist Damascius attributes to Acusilaus (6th century BC) a cosmogony in which Chaos is the first principle, after which comes Erebus and Night, and from this pair are then born Aether, Eros, and Metis.^[9] The philosopher Philodemus records that in the work On the Gods by one "Satyros", Erebus is the first of five rulers of the gods, and is succeeded as sovereign by Chaos (though others have suggested this figure may be Eros).^[10] According to a hymn by the poet Antagoras (3rd century BC), one of the possible parentages of Eros is Erebus and Night.^[11]

Erebus also features in genealogies given by Roman authors. According to Cicero (1st century BC), Erebus and Nox (the Roman equivalent of Nyx) are the parents of Aether and Dies (Day), as well as 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).^[12] In the Fabulae by the Roman mythographer Hyginus (1st century BC/AD), Erebus is the offspring of Chaos and Caligo (Mist), alongside Dies (Day), Erebus (Darkness), and Aether.^[13] By Nox, he becomes the father of 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).^[14]

In a cosmogony given by Aristophanes in his play The Birds (414 BC), which is often believed to be a parody of an Orphic theogony,^[15] Erebus is one of the first deities to exist, alongside Chaos, Night, and Tartarus. At the beginning of creation, Night lays a "wind-egg" in the "boundless bosom of Erebus", from which springs golden-winged Eros.^[16] In an Orphic theogony recorded by Damascius in his work De principiis (On First Principles), known as the Hieronyman Theogony (2nd century BC?),^[17] Erebus, alongside Aether and Chaos, is the offspring of Chronos (Time), who has the form of a serpent.^[18]

Name or region of the Underworld

The name "Erebus" is often used by ancient authors to refer either to the darkness of the Underworld,^[19] to the Underworld itself,^[20] or to the subterranean region through which souls of the dead travel to reach Hades,^[21] and it is sometimes used synonymously with Tartarus or Hades.^[22] Homer uses the term to refer to the Underworld:^[23] in the Odyssey, souls of the dead are described as "gather[ing] from out of Erebus", on the shore of Oceanus at the edge of the Earth,^[24] while in the Iliad Erebus is the location in which the Erinyes live,^[25] and from which Heracles must fetch Cerberus.^[26] In the Theogony, it is the subterraneous place to which Zeus casts the Titan Menoetius (here meaning either Tartarus or Hades),^[27] and from which he later brings up the Hecatoncheires.^[28] In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Erebus is used to refer to Hades, the location in which the god Hades and his wife Persephone reside,^[29] while in Euripides' play Orestes, it is where the goddess Nyx lives.^[30] Later, in Roman literature, Ovid calls Proserpina the "queen of Erebus",^[31] and other authors use Erebus as a name for Hades.^[32]

References

• Almqvist, Olaf, Chaos, Cosmos and Creation in Early Greek Theogonies: An Ontological Exploration, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. .
• Aristophanes, Birds in Birds. Lysistrata. Women at the Thesmophoria, edited and translated by Jeffrey Henderson, Loeb Classical Library No. 179, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2000. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. . Internet Archive. Google Books.
• Beekes, Robert S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2 vols, Leiden, Brill, 2009. .
• Bernabé, Alberto, Poetae epici Graeci: Testimonia et fragmenta, Pars II: Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia, Fasc 1, Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Munich and Leipzig, K. G. Saur Verlag, 2004. . Online version at De Gruyter.
• Brisson, Luc, Orphée et l'Orphisme dans l'Antiquité gréco-romaine, Aldershot, Variorum, 1995. .
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum in Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods. Academics, translated by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library No. 268, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, first published 1933, revised 1951. . Online version at Harvard University Press. Internet Archive.
• Chrysanthou, Anthi, Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, the Teletae and the Writings, De Gruyter, 2020. . Online version at De Gruyter.
• Claudian, Rape of Proserpina in On Stilicho's Consulship 2-3. Panegyric on the Sixth Consulship of Honorius. The Gothic War. Shorter Poems. Rape of Proserpina, translated by M. Platnauer, Loeb Classical Library No. 136, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1922. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Coulter, Charles Russell, and Patricia Turner, Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities, Routledge, 2012. .
• Euripides, Orestes in Helen, Phoenician Women, Orestes, edited and translated by David Kovacs, Loeb Classical Library No. 11, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2002. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. . Google Books.
• Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. .
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. .
• Kern, Otto, Orphicorum Fragmenta, Berlin, 1922. Internet Archive.
• Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Luján, Eugenio R., "The Cosmic Egg (OF 64, 79, 114)", in Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic Fragments, pp. 85–92, edited by Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui et al., De Gruyter, 2011. . Online version at De Gruyter. Google Books.
• Marshall, Peter K., Hyginus : Fabulae, Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Munich and Leipzig, K. G. Saur Verlag, 2002. . Online version at De Gruyter.
• Meisner, Dwayne A., Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods, Oxford University Press, 2018. . Online version at Oxford University Press. Google Books.
• Montanari, Franco, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, edited by Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden, Brill, 2015. . Online version at Brill.
• Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007. .
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, Volume I: Books 1-8, translated by Frank Justus Miller, revised by G. P. Goold, Loeb Classical Library No. 42, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1977, first published 1916. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Petronius, Satyricon in Petronius, Seneca. Satyricon. Apocolocyntosis, edited and translated by Gareth Schmeling, Loeb Classical Library No. 15, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2020. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Seneca, Hercules on Oeta in Tragedies, Volume II: Oedipus. Agamemnon. Thyestes. Hercules on Oeta. Octavia, edited and translated by John G. Fitch, Loeb Classical Library No. 78, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Seneca, Octavia in Tragedies, Volume II: Oedipus. Agamemnon. Thyestes. Hercules on Oeta. Octavia, edited and translated by John G. Fitch, Loeb Classical Library No. 78, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Silius Italicus, Punica, Volume I: Books 1-8, translated J. D. Duff, Loeb Classical Library No. 277, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1934. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). . Internet Archive.
• West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press, 1966. .
• West, M. L. (1983), The Orphic Poems, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1983. .

Notes and References

1. Tripp, p. 618.
2. Montanari, s.v. έρεβος, p. 815.
3. Montanari, s.v. έρεβος, p. 815.
4. Beekes, s.v. έρεβος, p. 451.
5. Hard, p. 21.
6. Gantz, p. 4; Hard, p. 23; Hesiod, Theogony 123.
7. Gantz, p. 4; Hesiod, Theogony 124 - 5.
8. Almqvist, p. 37.
9. Fowler 2013, pp. 5 - 6; Acusilaus, fr. 6b Fowler, p. 6 [= ''[[Brill's New Jacoby|BNJ]] 2 F6b = Damascius, De Principiis 124].
10. BNJ commentary on 20 F2; BNJ 20 F2.
11. Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 172.
12. [Cicero]
13. [Hyginus]
14. [Hyginus]
15. Brisson, I pp. 390–1; Bernabé 2004, p. 73 on fr. 64; Chrysanthou, p. 303.
16. Brisson, pp. 3 - 4; Luján, p. 86; Aristophanes, Birds 693 - 9 (pp. 116, 117) [= Orphic fr. 64V Bernabé (pp. 73–5) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/80/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 1 Kern]]. Luján, pp. 86 - 7 compares this progression of "Erebos – Egg – Eros" to the Indian Rigveda 10.129.3a - 4b, in which Darkness exists in the beginning, and out of Darkness comes the "One", from which arises Desire.
17. See Meisner, p. 1 with n. 3. Damascius states that the text is "referred to by Hieronymus and Hellanicus, unless he is the same person"; see Meisner, p. 122.
18. Meisner, pp. 126, 129; West, pp. 198 - 9; Brisson, I p. 395; Orphic fr. 78 Bernabé (p. 88) [= [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/130/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 54 Kern]]. Meisner, p. 144 says that Chronos produces these children by Ananke (Necessity), though West, p. 198 and Brisson, I p. 396 consider Chronos alone to be the parent. Brisson, V p. 55 also sees Orphic fr. 106 Bernabé (p. 114), from the later Orphic Rhapsodies, as alluding to Erebus; see also West, pp. 230 - 1.
19. Tripp, s.v. Erebus, p. 228; Hard, p. 23; Montanari, s.v. έρεβος, p. 815.
20. Hard, pp. 23 - 4; Morford, p. 371.
21. Smith, s.v. E'rebos; Coulter and Turner, s.v. Erebus, p. 170; cf. LSJ, s.v. Ἔρεβος: "a place of nether darkness, forming a passage from Earth to Hades".
22. Tripp, s.v. Erebus, p. 228; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Underworld; Morford, p. 57; Coulter and Turner, s.v. Erebus, p. 170.
23. Gantz, p. 4.
24. Gantz, p. 123; Homer, Odyssey 11.37.
25. [Homer]
26. [Homer]
27. Gantz, p. 154; Hard, p. 49; Hesiod, Theogony 514 - 5. According to Gantz, "it is not clear whether Hesiod means by this Tartaros, or that Menoitios met the fate of a mortal", while West 1966, p. 310 on line 515 states that "whether [Erebus] means Tartarus or Hades here [...] depends on whether Hesiod thought of Menoitios as god or mortal", while Hard says that it refers to "the nether darkness, presumably of Tartaros".
28. Gantz, p. 4; Hesiod, Theogony 669.
29. West 1966, p. 310 on line 515; Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2), 335; see also 349, 409.
30. [Euripides]
31. [Ovid]
32. [Petronius]