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.
Public Domain. 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.
Public Domain When not appearing in dreams, Oneiroi were said to have possessed human forms with wings on their backs. Dreams had such an important role in ancient Greece that writers put them into two categories — insignificant dreams that just reflected everyday fears and hopes of the day, and the significant ones that were visions of the future, visitations by ghosts or gods, and symbolic prophetic dreams that had to be interpreted.
Some dreams were also thought to be able to heal. As Miriam Kamil notes :. Greek religious culture allowed people to believe in the truth of these apparent dreams from the gods. Among religious Greeks, this belief was so strong that people bought dream books and practiced rituals to induce prophetic dreams. In the story of Alcyone and Ceyx, Ovid mentions that Ceyx undertook a journey across the sea to consult an oracle.
During his voyage, however, a tempest broke out, sinking his ship and resulting in his death. It is in this part of the Metamorphoses that Morpheus is described as being one of the one thousand sons of Somnus. Ovid also describes Morpheus as being the most talented of his brethren in mimicking human beings. His mimicry of humans is not limited to physical appearances, but also includes voice, mood, gait, and even choice of words.
Thus, he is the best choice for the gods when they wish to send images of human beings to sleeping mortals.
Filled with sorrow, Alcyone commits suicide by throwing herself into the sea. The gods, taking pity on them, then transformed them into Halcyon birds. Morphine , which was isolated from opium in , is named after Morpheus because it induced a euphoric, dream-like state of mind in those who took it. Like many of the Greek deities, Morpheus can be said to be a personification of an abstract idea, similar to that of Thanatos death or the Furies vengeance.
By giving these concepts a concrete form, the Greeks would have been able to better explain these forces that ruled human existence. Although belief in Morpheus as a god of dreams may not be as strong today as it was during the time of the Greeks, it has had an impact on the English language. This impact, however, is not merely restricted to Morpheus, but also to various other personified deities of Greek mythology.
Morpheus is one of the ancient Greek Oneiroi. Source: Public Domain. Atsma, A. Dumitru, A. Greek God Morpheus. Mythography, Morpheus at a Glance.
Morpheus — The God of Dreams. Although his primary interest is in the ancient civilizations of the Near East, he is also interested in other geographical regions, as well as other time periods Read More.
Oneirocritica from Artemidorus of the 2nd ce. AD especially the 1st volume , is surprisingly close to modern way of thinking about dreams. Let's also not forget that in Greek literature Morpheus can also affect Zeus and put him to sleep showing just how powerful that Greeks and Romans probably held sleep as a force.
Please read this because it is an eye opener to everyone. It was all about the ancient life, the mysteries of the world and the secret of the flower of life. In there, they mentioned chakras inside the body. I thought maybe I could also do the Astral Projection they are talking about. There are so much to say about these new knowledge I acquired but the real story here is about my dreams. That night I wanted to try astral projection. I thought it could happen easier if I just sleep so I just dozed off.
All I can recall is a face. I woke up a minute but I continued my sleep again. After I woke up I can still remember the face but not a single happening from my dream. As I could recall it appeared as if he was near me when I woke up since I can clearly see the top of his head to his shoulders only. He was looking at me with his head slightly bent to the left. He has no beard nor mustache and he wears a hood.
Not a hoodie of a jacket we have nowadays but a hood like from the Bible stories. I cannot describe his over all clothing since I could only see up to his shoulders. I tried to do Astral Projection again. I did not succeed BUT I had set of dreams - on different places, with different people.
There are 4 actually. These is how I wrote it in the journal:. I saw myself panicking while browsing on our wireless telephone for receiving a message from a businessman.
Then I was relieved the message was still on the phone. I think this has something to do with the job I want. I saw my 2 friends there Daniel and Lester chatting with me in a room that looked like a canteen.
Daniel is in front of me reading a book I know nothing about which looked like old scriptures. I remember he even make me take a look of a page. While Lester is beside me as usual humoring me.
Phobetor is the son of Hypnos and his wife Pasithea and is also the triplet brother of Morpheus , the god of dreams, and Phantasos the god of surreal dreams or fantasy. Where Morpheus and Phantasos are more the pleasant, or at least realistic dreams, Phobetor worked as the guardian of nightmares!
Specifically, he worked with phobias and animal-related fears. It's unclear if he has any origins involving these fears, but since nighttime fears aren't uncommon for mortals, it is certain that he doesn't discriminate.
The Oneiroi had the ability to appear in the mortal realm in the guise of various animals and could change their physical forms at will in order to interact with mortals in the waking world. He appears in dreams "in the form of beast or bird or the long serpent". Together with his brothers, Phobetor resided in the land of dreams Demos Oneiroi , a part of Hades. He's often seen reading the works of H.
He can even recite entire passages from Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein. Phobetor has no true physical form even though there are various sculptures of him where he is presented as a humanoid winged daemon.
Even so, this was mostly the closest thing to Phobetor having a true physical form. In nightmares, Phobetor would continuously shift into numerous forms, ranging from earthly animals to nightmarish beasts. Allen, Chas Saunders. Especially ones involving big hairy spiders, bloodthirsty rats, or slavering Bugblatter Beasts.
Common questions about Phobetor Who is the father of Phobetor? Link to this page HTML: To link to this page, just copy and paste the link below into your blog, web page or email. Cite this article Here's the info you need to cite this page. Just copy the text in the box below. Saunders, Chas, and Peter J.
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