HYPNOS

Hypnos is the son of some pretty heavy hitters—the primordial goddess Nyx (Night) and god Erebus (Darkness). He himself is the god of sleep. Perchance to dream? Nah, that’s the realm of his son Morpheus. But the two are often confused or even combined, because Hypnos is also associated with hypnosis or hallucinations. The opiate poppy was his flower, and he’s also often pictured with a branch dripping water from the River Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness that runs through the underworld.

He wasn’t a major player in most of the stories in Greek mythology, but more of a henchman—putting to sleep the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece so that Jason could make off with it, putting Zeus to sleep so that he couldn’t hinder Hera from helping her chosen side in the Trojan War and as a reward winning for himself the youngest of the Graces, Pasithea, as his wife.   I’m still stunned that people gave away brides like door prizes back in the day, sometimes even regifting them (like Helen to Paris after she was already married to Menelaus!)

Roman equivalents: Somnus or Sopor