Hemera
| Hemera | |
|---|---|
Primordial goddess of the day | |
 Relief of Hemera from the Aphrodisias Sebasteion | |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Erebus and Nyx or Chaos |
| Siblings | Aether, Hypnos, Thanatos, Oizys, Momus, Apate, the Moirai (Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos), the Oneiroi, Eris (Hesiod), the Furies (variant accounts), Moros |
| Consort | Aether, Uranus (Cicero) |
| Children | Gaia (Hyginus) Uranus (Hyginus) Thalassa (Hesiod, Hyginus), Hermes (Cicero) |
| Equivalents | |
| Roman | Dies |
| Part of a series on |
| Ancient Greek religion |
|---|
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| Greek deities series |
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| Primordial deities |
_-_Day_(1881).jpg)
In Greek mythology, Hemera (/ˈhɛmərə/; Template:Lang-grc [hɛːméra]) was the personification of day. According to Hesiod, she was the daughter of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night), and the sister of Aether. Though separate entities in Hesiod's Theogony, Hemera and Eos (Dawn) were often identified.[1]
Genealogy
In Hesiod's Theogony, Hemera and her brother Aether were the offspring of Erebus and Nyx.[2] Bacchylides apparently had Hemera as the daughter of Chronus (Time) and Nyx.[3]
Mythology
Hemera was the female counterpart of her brother and consort, Aether (Light), but neither of them figured actively in myth or cult. Hyginus lists their children as Uranus, Gaia, and Thalassa (the primordial sea goddess), while Hesiod only lists Thalassa as their child.
According to Hesiod's Theogony, Hemera left Tartarus just as Nyx entered it; when Hemera returned, Nyx left:[4]
Nyx and Hemera draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door."
Pausanias seems to confuse Hemera with Eos when saying that she carried Cephalus away. Pausanias makes this identification with Eos upon looking at the tiling of the royal portico in Athens, where the myth of Eos and Kephalos is illustrated.[5] He makes this identification again at Amyklai and at Olympia, upon looking at statues and illustrations where Eos (Hemera) is present.
Roman counterpart Dies
Hemera's Roman counterpart Dies (Day) had a different genealogy. Cicero says that Aether and Dies were the parents of Caelus (Sky),[6] and that Dies and Caelus were the parents of Mercury, the Roman counterpart of Hermes.[7] While, according to the Roman mythographer Hyginus, Nox (Night), Dies, Erebus, and Aether were the offspring of Chaos and Caligine (Mist), and Aether and Dies were the parents of Terra (Earth), Caelus (Sky) and Mare (Sea).[8]
Citations
General references
- Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume IV: Bacchylides, Corinna, Loeb Classical Library No. 461. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-674-99508-6. Online version at Harvard University Press.
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum in Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods. Academics, translated by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library No. 268, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, first published 1933, revised 1951. ISBN 978-0-674-99296-2. Online version at Harvard University Press. Internet Archive.
- Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 9780631201021.
- Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Hesiod, Theogony, in Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most. Loeb Classical Library No. 57. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
- Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabuae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W. H. S. Jones, Litt.D., and H. A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. Three vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). ISBN 069022608X.
External links
Media related to Hemera at Wikimedia Commons
