Thanatos and Hypnos

These two are so rich that I felt they deserved their own post.

In early mythological accounts, Thanatos was perceived as a powerful figure armed with a sword, with a shaggy beard and a fierce face. His coming was marked by pain and grief. In later eras, as the transition from life to death in Elysium became a more attractive option, Thanatos came to be seen as a beautiful young man. Many Roman sarcophagi depict him as a winged boy, much like Cupid.

I don't think it's incidental (everything is everything) that the twin of Thanatos is Hypnos, their mother the goddess Nyx ("night"). He is the personification of sleep; the Roman equivalent is known as Somnus. His palace is a dark cave where the sun never shines, the entrance surrounded by poppies and other hypnogogic plants. According to one story he lived in a cave underneath a Greek island; through this cave flowed Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. [This would contradict Freud's notion that in our dreams lie our rememberings.] In Sparta, the image of Hypnos was always put near that of death.

The four sons of Hypnos and Pasithea (herself associated with relaxation and hallucination) were Icelus, Morpheus, Phobetor and Phantasos. These four were known collectively as the Oneiroi. Some stories tell that Icelus and Phobetor were one and the same which would mean there were only three Oneiroi. The Oneiroi lived on the shores of the ocean (liminal zone) and were between them responsible for the dreams of mortals. Morpheus was the chief shaper of dreams (his name means "he who shapes"). Morpheus also had special responsiblity for the dreams of kings and heroes. For these reasons Morpheus is often referred to as "Morpheus the Greek god of dreams" in superiority to his brothers. Icelus concentrated on those aspects of dreams that reflected reality, Phobetor made fearsome dreams (hence "phobia") whilst Phantasus produced tricky and unreal dreams (hence "fantasy", "phantasmagoria", etc). Phobetor and Phantasos had responsibility for dreams about animals and inanimate objects respectively.

These spirits issued forth at night from one of two gates in the underworld: those who passed through the gate of horn brought false, lying dreams; those who issued from the gate of ivory were messengers of truth. There is a reference to this in "The Odyssey" as Penelope contemplates a dream she has had which Eurycleia tells her symbolizes her husband's return after a 20 year absence.


And since none of these figures should only be found in our western world if they are truly archetypal, here is a photo of a sculpture in Korea called "The Dream Gate."