Morpheus was here!

Greek mythology depicts its deities as belonging to one big family, and people today would likely be able to recognize its most prominent members. Most people are perhaps familiar with the Twelve Olympians, the major deities of the Greek pantheon. Many would have also heard about the Titans, the predecessors of the Olympian gods. Yet, the family tree of the Greek gods consists of more than just the Olympian gods and the Titans. There are gods whose existence predates even the Titans. One of these is Morpheus.

In Greek mythology, Morpheus is a god of dreams. According to the Greeks, Morpheus was born of Nyx, the personification of Night. The Romans believe, however, that Morpheus was the son of Somnus, the personification of Sleep, who was in turn a child of Nyx. Regardless of his parentage, Morpheus is said to have numerous siblings, collectively known as the Oneiroi (the Greek word for dream, incidentally, being oneiros). Apart from Morpheus, two other Oneiroi can be identified by their names – Phobetor and Phantasos.

Phobetor was thought to be the bringer of nightmares, and had the ability to appear as animals or monsters; Phantasos was believed to bring surreal and strange dreams, and was able to appear as inanimate objects, such as stones or wood. In contrast to his two siblings, Morpheus brought messages and prophesies from the gods to mortals through the medium of dreams. Thus, he appeared particularly to kings and heroes, and often took the appearance of a human being. When not appearing in dreams, Morpheus and his brothers were said to have possessed human forms with wings on their backs. These wings would have allowed Morpheus and his brethren to easily reach those whose dreams they were assigned. In addition, it is said that Morpheus’ wings enabled him to save his father Somnus, who was wingless, from the wrath of Zeus on more than one occasion.