Source Verification: Erebus
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
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.
Source: 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.
Source: 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.
Source: 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.
Source: 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.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony 116-123
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.
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 116-123
- Hesiod, Theogony 124-125
- Homer, Odyssey 20.355
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)