User:Michael Aurel/Erebus

Erebus

= Sources =
 * Loeb search

Etymology

 * LSJ
 * Beekes
 * Montanari

Name or region of the Underworld

 * Definition
 * Gantz, p. 4
 * Hard, pp. 23–4: "personification of darkness, especially of the darkness of the Underworld; his name was used quite often from the time of Homer onwards as a poetic name for the Underworld in its nature as a realm of gloom"
 * Smith: "the dark and gloomy space under the earth, through which the shades pass into Hades"
 * Tripp
 * Morford: "the gloomy darkness of Tartarus; later it may be equated with Tartarus itself"
 * Coulter and Turner: "As a deity of the lower world he is the personification of the terrible darkness through which departing souls pass to Hades. Erebus is also the name of the lower region of the underworld. The dark and mysterious place further below is often called Tartarus though many writers feel that Erebus and Tartarus are the same place. Hades is a general term used for the underworld or the deity in charge."
 * Hesiod:
 * Menoetius; Hard, p. 59; Gantz, p. 154;
 * Hecatoncheires
 * Euripides Orestes: Home of Nyx, see Nyx

= Structure =
 * Etymology
 * Personification of darkness
 * Name or region of the Underworld

= Text =

Lead
In Greek mythology, Erebus (Ἔρεβος, "darkness, gloom"), or Erebos, is the personification of darkness. In Hesiod's Theogony, he is the offspring of Chaos, and the father of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Nyx (Night); in other Greek cosmogonies, he is the father of Aether, Eros, and Metis, or the first ruler of the gods. In genealogies given by Roman authors, he begets a large progeny of personifications by Nox (the Roman equivalent of Nyx), while in an Orphic theogony he is the offspring of Chronos (Time). The name "Erebus" is also used to refer to the darkness of the Underworld, the Underworld itself, or the region through which souls pass to reach Hades, and can sometimes be used as a synonym for Tartarus or Hades.

Etymology
The meaning of the word Erebos (Ἔρεβος) is "darkness" or "gloom", particularly that of the Underworld. It derives from the Proto-Indo-European  ("darkness"), and is cognate with the Sanskrit rájas ("dark (lower) air, dust"), the Armenian erek ("evening"), the Gothic riqis, and the Old Norse røkkr ("dark, dust").

Name or region of the Underworld
The name "Erebus" is often used by ancient authors to refer either to the darkness of the Underworld, to the Underworld itself, or to the subterranean region through which shades pass to reach the Underworld, and it is sometimes used synonymously with Tartarus or Hades. Homer uses the term to refer to the Underworld: in the Odyssey, souls of the dead are described as "gather[ing] from out of Erebus", on the shore of Oceanus at the edge of the Earth, while in the Iliad Erebus is location in which the Erinyes live, and from which Heracles must fetch Cerberus. In the Theogony, it is the subterraneous place to which Zeus casts the Titan Menoetius (here meaning either Tartarus or Hades), and from which he later brings up the Hecatoncheires. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Erebus is used to refer to Hades, the location in which the god Hades and his wife Persephone reside, while in Euripides' play Orestes, it where the goddess Nyx lives. Later, in Roman literature, Ovid calls Proserpina the "queen of Erebus", and other authors use it as a name for Hades.

= Other =
 * Refer to Chronos creating the egg "amongst" them?
 * Expand out reference in Rhapsodies into body?
 * re Etymology: see West, East Face, p. 154 for cf. with Hebrew
 * Statius: "monsters of Erebus"?
 * Quintus Smyrnaeus?