Hera promised Hypnos the Grace Pasithea as his bride if he would put Zeus to sleep during the Trojan War. Their union produced the Oneiroi — Morpheus, who takes human form in dreams, Phobetor, who appears as beasts and serpents, and Phantasos, who fashions visions of earth, water, and stone.
⚠ Hesiod's Theogony 212 names the Oneiroi as children of Nyx alone; Ovid's Metamorphoses 11 attributes them to Somnus (Hypnos).
Nyx bore the twins Hypnos and Thanatos without a father — Sleep and Death, inseparable brothers who share a cave at the western edge of the world where the sun never shines.
⚠ Hyginus, Fabulae Preface names Erebus as father alongside Nyx; Hesiod's Theogony 211-212 has Nyx bearing them alone.
Hypnos commands the Oneiroi — Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos — dispatching them through the gates of horn and ivory to deliver dreams to sleeping mortals and gods.
Hypnos passed into Roman religion as Somnus, dwelling in a dark cave near the land of the Cimmerians where poppies bloom at the threshold and a river of Lethe flows past the entrance.
At Zeus's command, the twin brothers Thanatos and Hypnos carried Sarpedon's body from the battlefield at Troy to his homeland Lycia for proper burial. Homer describes them bearing the fallen hero gently through the air.
Hera enlisted Hypnos to put Zeus to sleep so Poseidon could aid the Greeks at Troy, offering the Grace Pasithea as his bride in exchange for the dangerous service.
In the Iliad, Hera first had Hypnos put Zeus to sleep when Heracles was returning from Troy, allowing her to send storms against him. Zeus's rage at this deception forced Hypnos to flee to Nyx.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the River Lethe flows past the cave of Hypnos in the land of the Cimmerians, its murmuring waters inducing drowsiness and forgetfulness that sustain the god of sleep's eternal slumber.
In the Iliad, Hypnos flees to Nyx after putting Zeus to sleep at Hera's request. Zeus pursues him in fury but halts before Nyx's dwelling, unwilling to offend the goddess of night.
In the Iliad, Hypnos put Zeus to sleep so Poseidon could freely intervene on behalf of the Greeks at Troy. Hypnos sped directly to Poseidon to report Zeus slumbered, turning the battle's tide.
According to Licymnius and other poets, Selene asked Hypnos to keep Endymion's eyes open in eternal sleep so she could forever gaze upon his beauty. Hypnos granted this unique form of slumber.
Hypnos and Thanatos, twin sons of Nyx, share a cave at the western edge of the world where the sun never reaches. Homer calls them brothers, and the Euphronios krater depicts them as winged youths bearing the dead.
Hypnos dwells in the Underworld near his twin brother Thanatos, residing in a dark cave where the waters of Lethe flow nearby.
In the Iliad, Hypnos put Zeus to sleep at Hera's behest during the Trojan War. When Zeus awoke in fury, Hypnos fled to Nyx for protection, as even the king of the gods feared to anger Night.
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