Erebus
Categories: Death gods | Greek gods
- For other uses, see Erebus (disambiguation).
| Greek deities series | |
|---|---|
| Titans and Olympians | |
| Aquatic deities | |
| Chthonic deities | |
| Personified concepts | |
| Other deities | |
| Primordial deities | |
In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Érebos was a primordial god, personification of darkness, offspring of Chaos alone. He was brother of Nyx and father of Aether by himself and, with Nyx, Hemera, Moros, Charon, Eros and the Keres.
According to some later legends, Erebus was part of Hades, the underworld. It was where the dead had to pass immediately after dying. After Charon ferried them across the river Acheron, they entered Tartarus, the underworld proper. Erebus was often used as a synonym for Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. Also, Erebus was the name of the gloomy space through which souls passed on their way to Hades.
The word is probably from Proto-Indo-European language, *h1regwos, cognate to Old Norse rœkkr, Gothic riqis "darkness", Sanskrit rajani "night", Tocharian orkäm "darkness". Another suggestion is a loan from Semitic , c.f. Hebrew erebh "sunset, evening" (hence, "darkness"). The same etymology of "sunset" has been suggested for Europe.bg:Ереб cs:Erebos da:Erebos de:Erebos es:Érebo fr:Érèbe it:Erebo lt:Erebas nl:Erebus ja:エレボス pl:Ereb pt:Erebus (mitologia) ro:Erebos fi:Erebos sv:Erebos tr:Erebus (mitoloji)