“Divine Hypnos, god who knows no pain,
Hypnos, stranger to anguish,
come in favor to us, come happy,
and giving happiness, great King!  
Keep before his eyes such light as is spread before them now.
Come to him, I pray you, come with power to heal!”

Sophocles, Philoctetes (409 B.C.)

No, not a new age cult.  The Scottish physician James Braid named hypnosis (an abbreviation from 'neurohypnosis' after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep (Latin name: Somnus).  It is difficult to track down images and text fragments relating to Hypnos so I decided to collect them in one place: my (pretend) Shrine of Hypnos!

“O, Somnus,
divine repose of all things!
Gentlest of the deities!
Peace to the troubled mind, 
 from which you drive the cares of life.
Restorer of men's strength
 when wearied with the toils of day.”

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XI (1 A.D.)

The Greek Myth of Hypnos

Hypnos was one of the many relatively minor and very ancient deities of the Greek pantheon. The similarities in appearance and behaviour between the god of Sleep and Hermes (Latin: Mercury) are so apparent, however, that it is compelling to speculate that the two are linked, or that Hypnos is in some way a particular aspect of Hermes.  Hermes, also considered a god of sleep, was one of the major Olympian gods and appeared later than Hypnos, it is probable that as Greek civilisation developed the minor, rural deities were absorbed into the official Olympian pantheon in this way.

Hypnos the Bountiful, as he was known by the ancients, rests in the arms of his mother Nyx (Night).  His father is Erebus, the pure darkness of Hades, the Underworld.  Hypnos dwells with his twin brother Thanatos, god of Death, in a dark cave by the banks of the river Lethe (Oblivion), at the entrance to Hades.  The cave is surrounded by opium poppies and other sleep-inducing herbs.

Hypnos is a gentle and benevolent god who sometimes takes the form of a singing bird, sometimes that of a winged youth or old man.   He carries a drinking horn, from which he pours sleep-inducing opium.  He is most beloved of the Muses, and his spouse is Pasithea, one of the Charities.  Together they have three children, Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasus who occupy the dreams of men.  Morpheus appears in human form in our dreams, Phobetor as birds and animals, and Phantasus as all the animate objects of our dreams.

Hypnos delivers mortals from pain and mental suffering, with the help of his sons and his brother Oniros (Dream) he colours their sleep with dreams.  Hypnos opens two gates, the Gates of Horn and Ivory, through which Oniros comes into the minds of men.  Through the Gates of Horn come prophetic dreams, and through the Gates of Ivory come deceptive dreams which mislead.

The House of Somnus

Near the Cymmerians, in his dark abode,
Deep in a cavern, dwells the drowzy God;
Whose gloomy mansion nor the rising sun,
Nor setting, visits, nor the lightsome noon;
But lazy vapours round the region fly,
Perpetual twilight, and a doubtful sky:
No crowing cock does there his wings display,
Nor with his horny bill provoke the day;
Nor watchful dogs, nor the more wakeful geese,
Disturb with nightly noise the sacred peace;
Nor beast of Nature, nor the tame are nigh,
Nor trees with tempests rock'd, nor human cry;
But safe repose without an air of breath
Dwells here, and a dumb quiet next to death.

An arm of Lethe, with a gentle flow
Arising upwards from the rock below,
The palace moats, and o'er the pebbles creeps,
And with soft murmurs calls the coming sleeps.
Around its entry nodding poppies grow,
And all cool simples that sweet rest bestow;
Night from the plants their sleepy virtue drains,
And passing, sheds it on the silent plains:
No door there was th' unguarded house to keep,
On creaking hinges turn'd, to break his sleep.

But in the gloomy court was rais'd a bed,
Stuff'd with black plumes, and on an ebon-sted:
Black was the cov'ring too, where lay the God,
And slept supine, his limbs display'd abroad:
About his head fantastick visions fly,
Which various images of things supply,
And mock their forms; the leaves on trees not more,
Nor bearded ears in fields, nor sands upon the shore.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XI (1 A.D.)