Adara asked this question on 5/4/2000:

MM! I once came across a sentence or two about a goddess but i've never been able to find any more information. Her name is Nox sometimes known as Nyx and she's the goddess of the night...abeit similar to Kali, i think. Please let me know if you have any other information about anything related!

Thank you! -Adara

Strix gave this response on 5/7/2000:

The following nformation was found at http://hsa.brown.edu/maicar/Nyx.html

Nyx is Night, a powerful goddess whose dark light falls from the stars and who dictates not only to men but also to gods. Even Zeus does not wish to upset Night:

It happened that Hera bribed Hypnos in order to make Zeus fall asleep, so that she could have it her way during the Trojan War. Hypnos obeyed the goddess in spite of his fears; for once he had performed a similar task and when Zeus woke up in anger, he sought him everywhere, and would have hurled him from heaven into the deep, had Nyx not saved him. For Zeus stopped and thought twice before doing something that could displease Nyx.

Some seem to think that Nyx appears because light is gone as if anything could be and yet do not exist on its own right. But when counting the days, not seldom the nights are mentioned first as when it is said:

"...a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth." [Hesiod, Theogony 725]

In Tartarus, both a place and her brother, Nyx has her home and spreads around him in triple line like a necklace. At the gates of Tartarus and above it are the sources and ends of heaven, earth and sea, and it is told that if a man should find himself inside the gates, he would not reach the bottom for one year, being carried by blasts in all directions.

But although it could be said that the days could not be counted if this dark-robed goddess, giver of sleep, would not come between them, night and day are, in a certain way, equals:

"...night's sightless eye, and radiant sun proceed upon their yearly course on equal terms and neither of them is envious when it has to yield." [Jocasta to her sons. Euripides, Phoenician women 543]

For the world, they say, is the movable image of Eternity, and when the heavens were constructed, there appeared after them Night and Day, the months and the years, being all portions of Time, which imitates Eternity.

Both Day and Night live in the same home behind the brazen threshold of Tartarus, never being there at the same time, for when one of them crosses the earth the other waits at home. But they greet each other at the threshold as they cross in front of the place where Atlas holds up heaven.

Black winged Nyx, some say, laid a germless egg in the infinite bosom of Erebus, the Darkness of the Underworld, and after long ages, sprang golden-winged Eros. But others have said that Nyx is the daughter of Eros, whereas others called them both children of Chaos. Nyx is highly appreciated and revered by those who cast snares, for mischief and treachery not seldom arise from night-time, when things are often unexpected, although Destruction is believed to make its way in any case:

"If night leaves anything undone in the working of destruction, day follows to accomplish it." [Sophocles, Oedipus the king 196] Hope this helps

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Adara rated this answer a 5.

oh my. thanks! that was exactly what i was looking for! :)