Erebus
Erebus is one of the first beings in existence, born from Chaos together with his sister Night in Hesiod's Theogony. With Night, he fathers Aether, the bright upper air, and Hemera, Day, though the two of them are made of nothing but darkness. By Homer's time, "Erebus" has become a place name too, the shadowy region beneath the earth where the dead go.
Erebus, the primordial god of darkness
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Core Myth
Hesiod opens the Theogony with the shape of the universe before the gods: Chaos comes first, then Earth, Tartarus, and Eros, and only after them does Erebus appear, born from Chaos together with black Night. Erebus and Night are darkness twice over, a god and goddess who are also the plainest possible description of the world before light exists. From their union comes brightness of a kind after all: Aether, the shining upper air the gods themselves breathe, and Hemera, Day, born to a father and mother who are nothing but night and gloom. Hesiod does not give Erebus a single action beyond this: no myth, no speech, no encounter with another god. He exists so that darkness has a name and a place in the family tree that ends, generations later, in Zeus.
Where does Erebus come from, and who are his parents?
Erebus has no parents in the ordinary sense. Hesiod's Theogony places him among the first things to exist at all, born directly from Chaos together with his sister, black Night, right after Earth, Tartarus, and Eros come into being.
Hesiod, Theogony 116-123
Who are Erebus's children?
With Night, Erebus fathers Aether, the bright air the gods breathe, and Hemera, Day. It is a strange pairing on paper: two beings made entirely of darkness giving rise to brightness and daylight.
Hesiod, Theogony 124-125
Does Erebus have any myths of his own?
No. Unlike Chaos, whose name at least becomes a byword for the yawning gap at the start of everything, Erebus never acts, speaks, or appears in a story. Hesiod names him only to place him in the family tree between Chaos and the children he fathers with Night.
Hesiod, Theogony 123-125
Why does Homer use "Erebus" differently from Hesiod?
Homer's Odyssey uses Erebus as a place, not a person: the dead "hasten down to Erebus beneath the darkness," much as Homer elsewhere calls the underworld the house of Hades. Hesiod's Erebus, by contrast, is a god with parents and children of his own. The two poets never reconcile the god and the place that shares his name.
Homer, Odyssey 20.355
Is Erebus the same thing as Tartarus or the underworld ruled by Hades?
Not exactly, though the boundaries blur. Hesiod lists Tartarus separately, as its own primordial being alongside Chaos, Earth, and Eros, distinct from Erebus. By the time of the Odyssey, though, Erebus, the house of Hades, and the general gloom beneath the earth are treated as more or less the same dark country, without much concern for keeping Hesiod's careful genealogy intact.
Hesiod, Theogony 116-123
Later Traditions
Homer never treats Erebus as a person the way Hesiod does. In the Odyssey, ghosts "hasten down to Erebus beneath the darkness," using the word the way later writers use Hades: as a place, not a parent or a god with a voice. The two pictures do not quite agree with each other. Hesiod's Erebus is a being who exists before the earth is finished and fathers two of the sky's own qualities; Homer's Erebus is just the name for wherever the dead already are, the same dim country the Odyssey elsewhere calls the house of Hades. Ancient sources never resolve which comes first, the god or the place named after him.
Also Connected
4 recorded connections, each with the ancient line behind it.
Connected
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Erebus comes forth from Chaos together with his sister Night, immediately after Chaos, Earth, Tartarus, and Eros in Hesiod's account of the first beings.
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Erebus and Gaia both number among the first beings named in Hesiod's opening account of the cosmos, though Hesiod never links them beyond that shared moment.
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Homer's Odyssey uses "Erebus" as another name for the shadowy region beneath the earth where the dead go, overlapping with the domain Hesiod elsewhere assigns to Hades.
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Night's union with Erebus produced Aether, the bright upper air, and Day.
Where Accounts Differ
- Erebus as a primordial god (Hesiod) versus Erebus as a place name for the underworld's darkness (Homer)
- Hesiod's Theogony and Homer's Odyssey do not agree on what Erebus is: Hesiod treats him as a primordial god with parents, a sister, and children of his own, while Homer uses the same name only as a place, the region of darkness beneath the earth where the dead go. This page follows both without resolving which use came first.
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Mythology
Related Terms
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 116-123
- Hesiod, Theogony 124-125
- Homer, Odyssey 20.355
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)