Achlys

For the plant genus named Achlys, see Achlys (plant).

Greek deities series
Primordial deities Titans and Olympians Aquatic deities Chthonic deities Mycenaean deities Other deities
Personified concepts
Achlys Adikia Alala Algos Amphilogiai Androktasiai Angelia Apate Atë Bia Charites Dike Dysnomia Epiales Eris Eros Harmonia Homados Horae Horkos Hypnos Hysminai Kratos Kydoimos Lampetia Limos Makhai Metis Mnemosyne Moirai Oneiroi Palioxis Polemos Proioxis Neikea Nemesis Nike Pandia Phaethusa Phonoi Ponos Thanatos Themis Zelos

In Greek mythology, Achlys (Greek language: Ἀχλύς "mist") was, according to some ancient cosmogonies, the eternal Night (perhaps the Mist of Death, which fell before the eyes preceding death), and the first created being which existed even before Chaos.

According to Hesiod, she was the personification of misery and sadness, and as such she was represented on the shield of Heracles: pale, emaciated, and weeping, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust.^[1]

If she was a daughter of Nyx (Night) then she may have been numbered amongst the Keres.^[2]

Hesiod's Account

Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 264 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic 8th or 7th century BC):

And beside them [the Keres (Deaths) and the Moirai (Fates) on the battlefield] was standing Akhlys (Achlys), dismal and dejected, green and pale, dirty-dry, fallen in on herself with hunger, knee-swollen, and the nails were grown long on her hands, and from her nostrils the drip kept running, and off her cheeks the blood dribbled to the ground, and she stood there, grinning forever, and the dust that had gathered and lay in heaps on her shoulders was muddy with tears.

Nonnus' Account

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 143 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic 5th century AD):

[Hera spies the nurses of the infant god Dionysos:] Hera, who turns her all-seeing eye to every place, saw from on high the everchanging shape of Lyaios [Dionysos], and knew all. Then she was angry with the guardians of Bromios. She procured from Thessalian Akhlys (Achlys, Death-Mist) treacherous flowers of the field, and shed a sleep of enchantment over their heads; she distilled poisoned drugs over their hair, she smeared a subtle magical ointment over their faces ,and changed their earlier human shape. Then they took the form of a creature with long ears, and a horse's tail sticking out straight from the loins and flogging the flanks of its shaggy-crested owner; from the temples cow's horns sprouted out, their eyes widened under the horned forehead, the hair ran across their heads in tuft, long white teeth grew out of their jaws, a strange kind of mane grew of itself, covering their necks with rough hair, and ran down from the loins to feet underneath.

References

↑ Scut. Here. 264, etc.
↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Achlys", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, MA, p. 12

Sources

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

External links

Theoi Project - Akhlys

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.