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Er·e·bus (ĕr'ə-bəs) ![]() |
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Erebus (Darkness), in Greek mythical cosmogony, one of the primeval deities sprung from Chaos (Void); the others are Gaia (Earth), Tartarus, Eros (Love), and Nyx (Night). Nyx and Erebus became the parents of Aether and Day, and of the Hesperides.
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In Greek mythology, Erebus (pronounced /ˈɛrəbəs/), also Erebos or Erebes (Ancient Greek: Ἔρεβος, "deep darkness or shadow"), was the son of a primordial god, Khaos, and represented the personification of darkness and shadow, which filled in all the corners and crannies of the world. His name is used interchangeably with Tartarus and Hades since Erebus is often thought of as part of the underworld. Erebus married his sister Nyx (goddess of the night) and their children included Aether, Hemera, Nemesis, and Charon.
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The perceived meaning of Erebus is "darkness", but the first recorded instance of it was "place of darkness between earth and Hades". Erebh means sunset, or evening.[1]
Erebus's father is Khaos, mother is Gaia goddess of the earth.
Erebus's father, Khaos, was said to be the entity from which all the gods were born. Gaia was the first being to exist, goddess of the earth. Chaos is described as a huge mass of nothing which separates the earth (Gaia) from the sky (Ouranos).
According to Hesiod's Theogony, Erebus was born the son of Khaos and darkness itself, without intercourse,[2] and brother to Nyx. Khaos' other children were Eros, Tartarus, and Gaia.[3] Eventually Nyx and Erebus courted and gave birth to Hemera (goddess of day), Aether (god of sky), Cer (goddess of death), Oneiroi (god of dreams), as well as Hypnos (god of sleep), his twin brother Thanatos (death), Momus (god of satire and the like), Nemesis ( goddess of revenge), and Charon, the ferryman.[4] He was also the father of Geras according to Hyginus (c. AD 1). Some accounts attest that Erebus is the father of the Fates with Nyx as well.[5]
Erebus was later depicted as a material region, the lower half of Hades, the underworld.[4] It was where the dead had to pass immediately after dying. Charon ferried the souls of the dead across the river Styx, upon which they entered the land of the dead.
Mount Erebus is a volcano on Ross Island, Antarctica, which is the southernmost historically active volcano.[6]
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