Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Nyx
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Quizzes
Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece.
From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology
mythology. Greek. Hermes. (Roman Mercury)
A Study of Greek and Roman Mythology
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what youā€™ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

Nyx

Greek mythology
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Nyx, in Greek mythology, female personification of night but also a great cosmogonical figure, feared even by Zeus, the king of the gods, as related in Homerā€™s Iliad, Book XIV.

According to Hesiodā€™s Theogony, she was the daughter of Chaos and the mother of numerous primordial powers, including Sleep, Death, the Fates, Nemesis, and Old Age. The Orphic Rhapsodies made her the daughter and successor of Phanes, a creator god; she continued to advise her own successors (Uranus, her son by Phanes; Cronus, youngest son of Uranus; and Zeus) by means of her oracular gifts. Aristotle, in Metaphysics, Book XII, asserted that some ā€œtheologiansā€ derive all things from night. This idea fits the theogony of Aristophanesā€™ Birds. Throughout antiquity Nyx caught the imagination of poets and artists, but she was seldom worshipped.