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De Natura Deorum

Marcus Tullius Cicero was one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. He was also a statesman, lawyer and philosopher.

De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods) was written by Cicero in 45 BC and discusses the beliefs of different Roman and Greek philosophers. It consists of three books.

Nyx and the line of her many offspring are spoken of in Book III, XVII.

"And if he is a god, his father Cælus [Ouranos] must also be acknowledged to be one. In that case the parents of Cælus [Ouranos] himself, Æther [Aither] and Dies [Hemera], must be considered so, and their brothers and sisters, who are named by the old genealogists as follows: Love (Amor) [Eros], Guile (Dolus) [Dolos], Fear (Metus) [Deimos], Labor [Ponos], Envy (Invidentia) [Nemesis], Fate (Fatum) [Moros], Old Age (Senectus) [Geras], Death (Mors) [Thanatos], Darkness (Tenebrae) [Keres], Misery (Miseria) [Oizys], Lamentation (Querella) [Momos], Partiality (Gratia) [Philotes], Deceit (Fraus) [Apate], Stubborness (Pertinacia), the Fates (The Parcae) [The Moirai], the Hesperides and Dreams (the Somnia) [the Oneiroi], all of whom, they say, were born from Erebus [Erebos] and Night [Nyx]."

Book sources:
Marci Tullii Ciceron. Marci Tullii Ciceronis ; De natura deorum. Translation by Francis Brooks. Methuen & Co. 1896.

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