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SOMNUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 394 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SOMNUS , the Latin name for the personification of See also:

sleep, in See also:Greek Hypnos ("Tavos). He is the son of See also:Night and the twin See also:brother of See also:Death, with whom he dwells in the darkness of the underworld. At first the difference between the two is strongly marked. While Death is cruel and merciless, and never lets go his See also:prey once seized, Sleep is See also:gentle and kindly, the bestower of See also:rest and pleasant dreams, the soother of care and sorrow. Even Eeus is unable to resist his See also:influence, and on two occasions was put to sleep by him at the instance of See also:Hera. In See also:time, however, the conception of Death was greatly modified, until at last he was depicted as a beautiful boy, with or without wings. In like manner, Sleep came to be used as a See also:euphemism for Death. In See also:art the representations of Sleep are numerous and varied. On the See also:chest of Cypselus, Night was depicted holding in her hands two sleeping See also:children—ene See also:white (Sleep), the other See also:black (Death). His most See also:common See also:form is that of a vigorous See also:young See also:man, with wings on his forehead; his attributes a stalk of See also:poppy, and a See also:horn from which he drops slumber upon those whom he puts to rest. In See also:Ovid (Metam. xi. 592) the See also:home of Sleep is placed in a dark grotto in the See also:land of the Cimmerians, where he dwells surrounded by a See also:band of Dreams.

See See also:

Homer, Iliad xiv. 231-xvi. 672; See also:Hesiod, Theog. 212, 758; See also:Pausanias, v. 18, 1.

End of Article: SOMNUS

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