Oneiroi- Greek GroupCollective"Children of Night"

Children of Night

Hesiod places the Oneiroi among the dark brood of Nyx in the Theogony, born without a father alongside Death, Sleep, Blame, and the Fates. They are siblings to Hypnos and Thanatos.

In the Odyssey, Penelope describes two gates through which dreams pass to reach mortals: one of polished horn, through which true visions emerge, and one of sawn ivory, which sends forth deception. The Greek words carry the distinction in their sound: keras, horn, echoes kraino, to fulfill, while elephas, ivory, echoes elephairo, to deceive. She tells Odysseus that her own dream came through the ivory gate, not trusting it.

The Cave of Dreams

Ovid places the Oneiroi's dwelling in the land of the Cimmerians in the Metamorphoses. The river Lethe flows past the entrance. No door hangs on the threshold, because the creak of a hinge would wake the sleepers inside. The god of Sleep rests on an ebony couch, and a thousand dream spirits recline around him in varied forms. Among them Ovid names Morpheus, who takes on human shape, and Icelos, called Phobetor by mortals, who assumes the forms of beasts and serpents.

When Alcyone's husband Ceyx drowned at sea, Juno sent Iris down to the cave to order a dream dispatched. Iris found the cave thick with darkness and poppies. She woke Hypnos, who roused Morpheus for the task. Morpheus flew on noiseless wings to Alcyone's chamber, took on the drowned form of Ceyx, and stood at her bedside dripping seawater. He told her the ship had broken apart, that he was dead, that she should not wait for him. She woke reaching for a body that was not there.