- Looks after
- Darkness, and the dark region under the earth
Erebus
Ἔρεβος
Erebus is Darkness, the brother and partner of Nyx, and the father of Aether and Hemera.
Erebus came into being from Chaos, with Nyx. His name is also used for the gloomy place that the dead pass through on the way to Hades. Homer uses it almost as a synonym for the underworld.
Together with Nyx he is the parent of Aether and Hemera. In Hesiod's scheme this is how light and day come from darkness and night, rather than the other way round.
Erebus has no cult and no stories as a character. His importance is in what he stands for, and in his link to Hesiod's account of Menoetius, whom Zeus struck down to Erebus with a thunderbolt.
In later art and language
Erebus is the name of the volcano on Ross Island in Antarctica, and of one of the ships of Sir John Franklin's lost 1845 expedition.
The ancient evidence for Erebus is limited, so this page is short on purpose.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 123-125, 514-516
- Homer, Odyssey 10.528