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Erebus

  (ĕr'ə-bəs) pronunciation
n. Greek Mythology.

The dark region of the underworld through which the dead must pass before they reach Hades.


 
 

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.

 
(ĕr'ĭbəs) , in Greek religion and mythology, personification of darkness. According to Hesiod, Erebus sprang from Chaos and was the father of Day. His name was sometimes used for Hades.


 
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Greek deities
series
Titans and Olympians
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Personified concepts
Other deities
Primordial deities

In Greek mythology Erebus (Έρεβος Erebos, "Deep blackness/darkness or shadow " from Ancient Greek Ἔρεβος) was the son of a primordial God, Chaos, the personification of darkness and shadow, which filled in all the corners and crannies of the world. He was the offspring of Chaos alone. He was brother of Nyx and father with her of Aether and Hemera, according to Hesiod (c. 700 BC). According to Hyginus (c. AD 1), he was the father of Geras.

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.

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 and Akkadian erebu "sunset, evening" (hence, "darkness"). The same etymology of "sunset" has been suggested for Europe.


 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Erebus" Read more

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