Erebus.
Darkness before the daylight
Erebus: Greek Primordial God of Darkness and His Familyis the darkness that arises from . With , Night, he becomes the parent of brightness and day, giving the earliest divine family one of its striking reversals.
More than a myth.
Erebus in the Greek creation story
begins with , then names Earth, , and . and explicitly arise from Chaos in the next part of the . This distinction prevents every early being from being treated as a child of the same parent simply because the names stand close together in the poem.
Light born from darkness
conceives and through union with . The upper brightness and Day therefore have Darkness and Night as parents. These figures are both named beings and features of the experienced world. The describes contrasts becoming related, rather than offering a modern physical explanation of daylight.
A name for the lower darkness
Ancient poetry can also use for the dark region associated with the dead. A place name in a journey does not always mean the personified ancestor has entered the story as a speaking character. Following the sentence’s context helps distinguish primordial from the geography of an underworld scene.
Questions about Erebus
Is Erebus the same as Hades?
No. is primordial darkness and can also name a dark region. is a later god who rules the dead.
Who are Erebus’s children?
In , and are the parents of and , the bright upper air and Day.
It’s a family affair.
The stories of Erebus.
Ancient voices.
Enduring stories.
Myths have many tellings. These are the ancient works behind this profile, linked to freely available English translations.
Theogony
Lines 116–125, 514–515, 669