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Nyx has been known to be formless, or mist, as she is the night. In personified views she is usually a woman with wings riding a chariot drawn by two steeds accompanied by stars. In art she has been seen without wings. Some have depicted her in dark star-spangled clothing.

"Greek mythology had an ambivalent view of night. In one of its manifestations it was the great goddess Nyx in a BLACK, STAR-studded robe; during the day she lives in a CAVE far off in the west, until the time comes for her to emerge from it and cross the sky in her CHARIOT pulled by black HORSES. She is also portrayed with black WINGS."


☽¤☾ In Prometheus Bound, attributed to Aeschylus, Nyx's robe is again said to be decorated with stars and speaks of her veil.

"And glad you shall be when spangled-robed Nyx shall veil his brightness and when Helios shall scatter again the frost of morning."


☽¤☾ It has been told in Euripides's Ion, that Nyx's chariot was drawn by two horses. Her clothing is black and the stars accompany her.

"Dark-robed Night was shaking her two-horse chariot by means of the yoked pair, and stars attended her."


☽¤☾ In Ovid's Fasti, Nyx is mentioned wearing a garland of poppies.

"Meanwhile Night (Nox) [Nyx] arrived, her calm brow wreathed
With poppies: bringing with her shadowy dreams."


☽¤☾ Quintus Smyrnaeus puts her in mourning (black) garments as well.

"Then plunged the sun down into Ocean's [Okeanos] stream,
And sable-vestured Night [Nyx] came floating up

O'er the wide firmament, and brought her boon
Of sleep to sorrowing mortals."





Book sources:
Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them. Hans Biedermann. Translated by James Hulbert. Plume; Reprint edition. 1994.
Aeschylus. Aeschylus. English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes. 1. Prometheus Bound. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926.
Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama. Edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. In two volumes Vol. 1. Ion, translated by Robert Potter. New York: Random House. 1938.

Internet sources:
Poetry in Translation - Ovid: Fasti
OMACL - Quintus Smyrnaeus: The Fall of Troy



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