Similarly, some light was found even in the middle of the night. Darkness still existed in shadowed areas and indoor spaces on even the brightest days. Similar observations could have led some people to conclude that daylight and darkness were not entirely at odds with one another. This likely led early Greek people to surmise that the light came from the air, or aether, while the sun only provided additional brightness and warmth. When clouds obscured the sky and the sun was not visible, there was still daylight. The separation between brightness, time of day, and the celestial gods was probably inspired by observation. The Greeks, however, made the god of darkness a powerful presence that was not necessarily threatening. Many ancient religions believed that if the sun god, or more rarely the sun goddess, was ever defeated or captured, darkness would descend over everything. Unlike many other ancient cultures, the Greeks did not believe that daylight was derived solely from the sun. Immediately after death, the souls of the deceased passed through a dark region of Erebus. Later writers also named Erebus as a location within the realm of Hades. According to some stories, the far western edge of the world, where the sun set, was the eternal realm of Erebus. She and Nyx shared their time across the world, creating the cycle of day and night.Įrebus was present at night, but he also had his own land. Hemera pushed her parents to the edges of the world. She and her brother brought the first light, although there was no sun yet, and spread it across the sky. Their first daughter was Hemera, the goddess of the day. He filled the space between Gaia and Uranus. Their first son was Aether, the god of light air. Unlike Gaia, their first offspring were also formless primordial beings. The newly-formed universe was shrouded in complete darkness.Įrebus and Nyx came together and made several children. While the primordial deities came into being, Erebus encompassed everything. While Uranus and Gaia were opposites who eventually needed to be kept separate from one another, Erebus and Nyx complimented each other and were inseparable. While Uranus and Gaia, the heavens and the earth, were paired together, Erebus was born alongside his sister Nyx. The primordial deities were the first things to emerge from the mass of Chaos.Īccording to many versions of the Greek creation story, the primordial gods existed in pairs. This also meant that he was one of the oldest gods. While the Titans and Olympians were seen as largely human in appearance and character, the primordial gods were inseparable from their elemental nature. This meant that he did not have a definite form. The Primordial God of DarknessĮrebus was one of the primordial gods in Greek mythology. By establishing the first and most basic cycle, they laid the foundations for the Greek view of natural laws and proper order. Instead, these elemental beings worked in harmony with one another. Unlike many other mythologies, the Greeks did not see the god of darkness as a threatening figure to the god of light. The Greek creation story was relatively unique in that it did not immediately pair off the ideas of light and darkness or make them the same as day and night. Alongside them were born Nyx, the goddess of night, and Erebus, the Greek god of darkness. They were not the only early elemental beings, however. Emerging from Chaos, figures like Gaia, Uranus, and Tartarus laid the foundation for the world as the Greek people saw it. In Greek cosmology, the first beings to come into existence were the primordial gods.
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