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Two words from a book I'm reading met with this week's theme: "about sleep".
Hypnagogic: 'of or related to the state just before one is fully asleep'.
Hynopompic: 'of or related to the state before one is really awake'.
Interesting and often amusing moments of subconcious- conciousness, but when I went looking in dictionaries for things related to these words and sleep I wondered about this:
There are two Greek gods of sleep: Hypnos and Morpheus.
One Roman god of sleep: Somnus.
Both Hypnos and Somnus have led to many words related to sleep.
But as far as I could find the only word coming from Morpheus
was morphine as a sedative. Morpheus however has left us many words related to form, formation, changing form.
Maybe there is a simple explanation how this came to be, but I can't find it. If Morpheus came from Greek morphe = form how does it connect to sleep?
Last edited by BranShea; 02/05/08 07:35 PM.
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Morpheus is actually the god of dreams and the son of Hypnos (Υπνος), the god of sleep, and Nyx (Νυξ, i.e., νυξ ( nuks) 'night', Latin nox), the goddess of night. Accrdoing to Pierre Chantraine in his Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: Morphée fils du Sommeil, ainsi nommé en raison des apparitions qu'il fait naître dans les songes. ("Morpheus, son of Sleep, is so named because of the apparitions to which he gives birth.") [Addendum: Ovid tells an interesting myth about Ceyx and Halcyone in which Somnes and his son Morpheus put in an appearance. In the Metamorphoses 11.600ff. Having delivered her message, Iris hastened away, for she could not longer endure the stagnant air, and as she felt drowsiness creeping over her she made her escape, and returned by her bow the way she came. Then Somnus called one of his numerous sons—Morpheus—the most expert in counterfeiting forms, and in imitating the walk, the countenance and mode of speaking, even the clothes and attitudes most characteristic of each. But he only imitates men, leaving it to another to personate birds, beasts and serpents. A good prose version is in Bullfinch. Here. Iris, the messenger of the gods, feels sleepy because in front of the cave in which Somnus, the god of sleep, sleeps on an ebony bed, grow many poppies, the juice of which Nyx collects to cause sleep.]
Last edited by zmjezhd; 02/05/08 09:46 PM.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Ah, I see. I now took a run through the whole OneLook collection and of the 18 dictionaries the first gave 'sleep and dream.'
The big Collins I have as a table dictionary has the word 'dream' on the next page and I overlooked it. Nothing there however about 'son of Hypnos'.
Most of the OneLook list give just 'god of dream'. Some call Morpheus Roman. Four give the correct fact that Morpheus was the son of Hypnos. So it's Morpheus that passes by in the blessed state before being fully asleep or awake.
(nice details, I'll explore it a bit more)
Last edited by BranShea; 02/05/08 10:24 PM.
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'son of Hypnos'.
In some tales, Morpheus is the brother of Hypnos. It's good to remember that there is no received canon with Greek and Roman mythology: just lots of little snippets. The Ceyx tale is also mentioned by Virgil (in passing), and recorded by Pseudo-Apollodorus in the Bibliotheca and Hyginus in his Fabulae. Ceyx' grieving wife's name is related to our word halcyon (as in days): the word meant 'kingfisher' or 'golden' in Greek.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Was there besides Iris not also a male messenger of the gods?
I remember images of statues of a figure with wings. I looked up images, Yes,it was Hermes.
Last edited by BranShea; 02/05/08 10:38 PM.
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besides Iris
It is interesting that in the Iliad, Iris is the messenger of the gods, but in the Odyssey, Hermes is. They both carried caducei (which oughtn't to be confused with the rod of Asclepius). She is sometimes represented by a rainbow.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Iris: Iris Hermes: HermesThe winged messengers.
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enthusiast
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"Doctor, help me, I've got Hermes!" "I think you mean herpes" "No, I'm just a carrier."
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A carrier of a silly mindframe. In this matter.
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"Doctor, help me, I've got Hermes!" "I think you mean herpes" "No, I'm just a carrier." heh
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