Somnus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Somnus | |
|---|---|
God of sleep | |
 Somnus and Mors, Sleep and His Half-Brother Death by John William Waterhouse | |
| Abode | Underworld |
| Genealogy | |
| Children | The Somnia, which included Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos |
In Roman mythology, Somnus ("sleep") is the personification of sleep.[1] His Greek counterpart is Hypnos.[2] Somnus resided in the underworld. According to Virgil, Somnus was the brother of Death (Mors),[3] and according to Ovid, Somnus had a 'thousand' sons,[4] the Somnia ('dream shapes'), who appear in dreams 'mimicking many forms'.[5] Ovid named three of the sons of Somnus: Morpheus, who appears in human guise, Icelos / Phobetor, who appears as beasts, and Phantasos, who appears as inanimate objects.[6]
In the Greek tradition, Hypnos (Sleep) was the brother of Thanatos (Death), and the son of Nyx (Night).[7] According to Hesiod, Sleep, along with Death, live in the underworld,[8] while in the Homeric tradition, although "the land of dreams" was located on the road to the underworld, near the great world-encircling river Oceanus, nearby the city of Cimmerians,[9] Sleep himself lived on the island of Lemnos.[10]
Virgil
Following the Greek tradition, Virgil makes Sleep and Death brothers, and locates their dwellings next to each other, near the entrance of the underworld:
- In the first courts and entrances of Hell
- Sorrows and vengeful Cares on couches lie :
- There sad Old Age abides, Diseases pale,
- And Fear, and Hunger, temptress to all crime;
- Want, base and vile, and, two dread shapes to see,
- Bondage and Death : then Sleep, Death's next of kin;[11]
Somnus makes a brief appearance in Virgil's Aeneid. Virgil has Somnus cause Palinurus, the helmsman of Aeneas's ship, to fall asleep while steering the ship at night.[12] Somnus, in the guise of Phorbas, a shipmate, appears to Palinurus and offers to take over, so that Palinurus might rest awhile. But Palinurus refused the offer, so Somnus uses a branch, "imbued" with the power of underworld's river Styx, to sprinkle Palinurus with water from the river Lethe, the underworld's river of forgetfulness. Palinurus then falls asleep, and Somnus pushes him overboard.
