Pasithea Pasithea In Greek mythology, Pasithea (, "relaxation"), or Pasithee, was one of the Charites (Graces), and the personification of relaxation, meditation, hallucinations and all other altered states of consciousness. The Charites are usually said to be the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, but Pasithea's parentage is given (by the poet Nonnus) as Hera and Dionysus. She was married to Hypnos, the god of sleep. Her sisters are Aglaea ("Splendor"), Euphrosyne ("Mirth"), and Thalia ("Good Cheer"). In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces". In book 14 of Homer's Iliad, Pasithea was one of the younger Charites. Hera
Greek mythology libretti for many of Handel's and Mozart's operas. By the end of the 18th century, Romanticism initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Keats, Byron and Shelley) and painters (such as Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema). Christoph Gluck, Richard Strauss, Jacques Offenbach and many others set Greek mythological themes to music. American authors of the 19th century, such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne, held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of