Notes on Greek Gods of The Land of Dreams
All posts:
Greek Gods of The Land of Dreams
The Underworld Pt.1: Hades & His Estate
The Underworld Pt.2: Five Regions of The Afterlife
The Underworld Pt.3: Five Rivers of The Underworld
The Underworld Pt.4: Consorts of Hades
The Underworld Pt.5: Hades’ Attendants
The Underworld Pt.6: Sacred Plants & Symbols
I recently had the most horrible nightmare; truly frightening. As a means of confronting my experience head on, I decided to read up on The Greek Gods of dreams and nightmares (mythology being a long-since passion of mine) and thought I’d share a summary of my meager research for anyone who would enjoy it. (Disclaimer: If you want official facts I suggest doing your own research as I am human and not an expert, and as such subject to error… but I try.) Demos Oneiroi, or The Land of Dreams, was a part of The Underworld that was ruled by Hades. Hypnos (The God of Sleep) fathered countless Oneiroi (or dream spirits / demons), but his favored sons (mothered by Pasithea, one of The Graces, possibly of rest and relaxation) were Morpheus, Phantasus, and Icelus or Phobetor. Morpheus (lit “to take form”) was considered a messenger of the Gods and known as the King of Dreams, after his penchant for appearing in dreams as a ruler of men. Of all the Oneiroi, he was the only one to master the ability to mimic the speech, appearance, gait, and fashion of men. Phantasus (lit “bring images to mind”) was the God of bizarre or nonsensical dreams. He often manifested in dreams as inanimate objects. The third son was known as Icelus to the Gods (lit “resembling”) and Phobetor to men (lit “to be feared”). He was the God of nightmares and could only manifest as beasts, birds, or snakes. It seems his nightmares were also used as messages, and he was only able to manifest within dreams, but not outside of them. Many other Oneiroi were also produced from the union of Nyx (Goddess of Night) and Erebus (God of Darkness), particularly those responsible for nightmares. One of these that is named is Epiales (lit “to lie upon”), the demon of nightmares, also known as melas oneiros (“The Black Dream”). I’m not sure the differentiation between he and Phobetor, but it seems that Epiales had the ability to bring nightmares to reality and I surmise was possibly the master of incubi and succubi. He was believed to have the power to scare you to death. Alternative spellings of his name were also used to described the feverish chill experienced during night terrors. The host of the Oneiroi (dream spirits) were believed to take the form of black winged creatures and spring forth from the cavernous entrance to their world like a cluster of bats. They had to pass through one of two gateways, one made of horn which led to dreams that were true, and one made of ivory which led to dreams that were false.
Nyx (Goddess of Night) also along with Erebus (Darkness) also gave birth to Aethur (Brightness) and Hemera (Day), as well as Charon (the ferryman of The Dead who rows upon The River Archeron). On her own, Nyx later gave birth to Hypnos (Sleep), Moros (Doom or Destiny), Ker (Fate or Destruction), Thanatos (Death), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain), Nemesis (Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Friendship), Geras (Old Age), Eris (Strife or Chaos), The Moirai (The Three Fates, keepers of the threads of each living person’s life), and The Keres (angels of Death, similar to The Valkyrie which hover over battlefields).
**Bonus Fact: As a little tidbit of floriography, the symbol often used to represent Morpheus was the poppy. Likewise, the poppy became a symbol of sleep or peace, red poppies representing sleeping death. In classic mythology, the red poppy represented resurrection after death. The poppy is also the source of opium and its seeds contain small amounts of morphine. Morphine is named after Morpheus, so FULL CIRCLE.
