Erebus

Erebus was one of the first beings to come into existence in Greek mythology, a son of Chaos and the personification of the deep darkness. In Hesiod’s Theogony he and Night (Nyx) were both born of Chaos, and by union with his sister he became the father of Aether (the bright upper air) and Hemera (Day) (Hesiod, Theogony 123–125). The same name, Erebus, was also used for the dark region beneath the earth, the world of the dead.

The Origins of Erebus

Hesiod tells how first Chaos came into being, then broad-breasted Earth (Gaia), dim Tartarus in the depths of the earth, and Eros, the most beautiful of the immortal gods (Theogony 116–122). He then says: “From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night” (Theogony 123). Hesiod does not call Gaia, Tartarus or Eros the brothers and sisters of Erebus; Erebus and Night are the two children he names as born of Chaos.

Aristophanes gives a different account in a comic cosmogony in the Birds: in the beginning there were Chaos, Night, dark Erebus and wide Tartarus, with no earth, air or sky. In the boundless depths of Erebus, black-winged Night laid a wind-egg, from which Eros later sprang (Aristophanes, Birds 693–696).

Erebus’ Family

In Hesiod, Erebus is the son of Chaos and the brother of Night, and he has no other relatives named in the poem. His union with Night produced two children: Aether and Hemera, the upper air and the day (Theogony 124–125). The other offspring of Night in Hesiod, such as Doom, Death, Sleep, the Dreams, Blame, Distress, the Hesperides, the Fates, Nemesis, Deceit, Old Age and Strife, are children of Night alone: Hesiod says she bore them “lying with no one” (Theogony 211–225).

Other versions of his children

Other writers give Erebus a larger family. In Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods, the sceptic Cotta lists a series of such abstractions – Aether and Day, then Love, Guile, Toil, Envy, Fate, Old Age, Death, Darkness, Misery, Lamentation, Favour, Fraud, Obstinacy, the Fates, the Hesperides and the Dreams – and says that they were all said to be born of Erebus and Night (Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.44). In this version the Fates (Moirai) and Death (Thanatos) are children of Erebus and Night; in Hesiod they are children of Night alone.

The Realm of Erebus

The name Erebus is also used for a place. In Homer it is a dark region in or beside the world of the dead. Odysseus is told to turn the heads of the sacrificed sheep toward Erebus, and the spirits of the dead gather “out of Erebus” to drink the blood (Homer, Odyssey 10.528, 11.37). Heracles was sent by Eurystheus to bring the hound of Hades “out of Erebus” (Iliad 8.368), and two companions of Sarpedon, killed in battle, “went down to Erebus” (Iliad 16.327). Scylla’s cave is said to face west, toward Erebus (Odyssey 12.81), and an Erinys is said to hear a curse “from Erebus” (Iliad 9.571–572). In Hesiod, Zeus sent Menoetius “down to Erebus”, and the Hundred-Handers were brought up from Erebus by Zeus (Theogony 515, 669).

Erebus in Mythology and Culture

Erebus has no myths of his own. He appears in the ancient sources only as a figure in the genealogies of the first beings and as the name of the darkness under the earth. Later Latin poets use Erebus for the underworld in general, as Virgil does when he speaks of the shades coming from the deepest depths of Erebus in the story of Orpheus (Virgil, Georgics 4.471–472).

Erebus Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 116–125, 211–225, 515, 669; Homer, Iliad 8.368, 9.571–572, 16.327 and Odyssey 10.528, 11.37, 12.81; Aristophanes, Birds 693–696; Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.44; Virgil, Georgics 4.471–472.

See Also: Chaos, Gaea, Tartarus, Eros, Nyx, Moirai, Aether, Hemera