Hypnos is said to be the son of Nyx, goddess of night, and the twin brother of Thanatos, the god of death.Īs the god of sleep, he had the power to induce sleep on all creatures. In some accounts, he is said to have no father some others state that he was the son of Nyx and Erebus.Īccording to some sources Hypnos lived in a dark cave in the underworld with Thanatos. The cave was out of reach of sunlight and had poppies, flowers which are known to induce sleep, at the entrance. However, in the Iliad, Homer places his dwelling in the island of Lemnos.
According toOvid’s Metamorphoses, he lives in a cave in the land of the Cimmerian and that the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness and oblivion, crosses to the cave. In terms of appearance, Hypnos is depicted as a young man with wings on his shoulders or his head. He was normally seen with a horn, the stem of a poppy, or with water from the Lethe to induce sleep. Their three sons, named Morpheus, Icelus, and Phantaus were the Oneiroi, who were the dreams in Greek mythology.Īccording to some myths, Morpheus, who created dreams about men, was the chief of the three. The other two, Icelus and Phantasus, created dreams about animals and inanimate things. One of the most famous stories connected to Hypnos relates to his ability to put even the great god Zeus to sleep, not once but twice.
