There was also Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn. Hemera seems to occupy a position more comparable to that of the modern concept of Father Time or Lady Luck – names attached to an idea but with no real humanity conferred by them. In the evening, she would return to the house, passing her mother who always left just as she arrived, carrying Sleep and bringing night to the world above.Īnd while shrines have been found with references to Hemera, there’s no evidence that she was a regular (or even occasional) object of worship. Hemera occupied a house in Tartarus with her mother, the night goddess, and each morning she would leave for the surface world, crossing a bronze threshold. Her most substantial references are found in Hesiod’s Theogony, which in addition to her place in the family tree of Greek gods gives us a look at her routine. She has little in the way of interactions with her fellow gods or with mortals, and Greek myths make only passing references to her, without any of the more detailed stories other deities such as Apollo or Artemis boasted. READ MORE: Sun Gods: Ancient Solar Deities From Around the World Empty Days: Hemera’s Status as a Godįor all this established genealogy, however, Hemera is still more of a personification than a true anthropomorphic goddess. Other accounts have her as the daughter of Cronus and in some cases the daughter of the sun-god Helios. The Titanomachy has Hemera – by her brother Aether (the Bright Sky, or the Upper Air) – as the mother of Uranus, making her the grandmother of the Titans. There are, of course, alternate genealogies to be found. This makes Hemera effectively the cousin of Uranus, the father of the Titans – placing her among the most senior deities in Greek mythology. Her most common genealogy is that noted by Hesiod in his Theogony, she is the daughter of the Night-goddess Nyx and her brother Erebus, or Darkness.īoth of these gods were themselves the children of Chaos, and among the very first beings to exist, along with Gaia, who would give birth to Uranus and thus give rise to the Titans. Hemera is listed among the earliest gods of the Greeks, well before the Olympian gods rose to prominence.
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