17) enumerate many personifications of abstract notions as the offspring of Erebos. ? (OBSTINACIA), THE MOIRAI (PARCAE), THE HESPERIDES, THE ONEIROI (SOMNAI) (by Nyx) (Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.17)Į′REBOS (Erebos), a son of Chaos, begot Aether and Hemera by Nyx, his sister. EROS (AMOR), DOLOS (DOLUS), DEIMOS (METUS), PONOS (LABOR), NEMESIS (INVIDENTIA), MOROS (FATUM), GERAS (SENECTUS), THANATOS (MORS), KERES (TENEBRAE), OIZYS (MISERIA), MOMOS (QUERELLA), PHILOTES (GRATIA), APATE (FRAUS), MOROS (FATUM), GERAS (SENECTUS), THANATOS (MORS), KER (LETUM), SOPHROSYNE (CONTINENTIA), HYPNOS (SOMNUS), ONEIROI (SOMNIA), EROS (AMOR), EPIPHRON, PORPHYRION, EPAPHOS, ERIS (DISCORDIA), OIZYS (MISERIA), HYBRIS (PETULANTIA), NEMESIS, EUPHROSYNE, PHILOTES (AMICITIA), ELEOS (MISERICORDIA), STYX, MOIRAI (PARCAE), HESPERIDES (by Nyx) (Hyginus Preface) AITHER, HEMERA, EROS (by Nyx) (Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.17) OFFSPRING DAIMONES AITHER, HEMERA (by Nyx) (Hesiod Theogony 124, Cicero De Natura Deum 3.17) KHRONOS & ANANKE (Orphic Fragment 54) OFFSPRING PROTOGENOI KHAOS (no father) (Hesiod Theogony 123, Hyginus Preface) The name Erebos was also used as a synonym for the netherworld realm of Haides.
In the ancient cosmogonies the heavenly ether ( aither) and the dark mists of the netherworld ( erebos) were regarded as the sources of day and light rather than the sun. In the evening, Erebos' wife Nyx drew Erebos' darkness across the sky bringing night and his daughter Hemera scattered it at dawn bringing day-the first obscuring Aither (Aether), the heavenly light of the ether, the second revealing it. His dark mists encircled the world and filled the deep hollows of the earth. EREBOS (Erebus) was the primordial god ( protogenos) of darkness and the consort of Nyx (Night).