Hypnos Hypnos In Greek mythology, Hypnos (; , "sleep") is the personification of sleep; the Roman equivalent is known as Somnus. In the Greek mythology, Hypnos is the son of Nyx ("The Night") and Erebus ("The Darkness"). His brother is Thanatos ("Death"). Both siblings live in the underworld ("Hades") or in Erebus, another valley of the Greek underworld. According to rumors, Hypnos lived in a big cave, which the river Lethe ("Forgetfulness") comes from and where night and day meet. His bed is made of ebony, on the entrance of the cave grow a number of poppies and other hypnotic plants.
Modern understanding of Greek mythology about gods than about the physical world; it is about the human mind and must be read symbolically. Karl Kerenyi, one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth. The origins of Greek mythology are an open question. In antiquity, historians such as Herodotus theorized that the Greek gods had been stolen directly from the Egyptians. Later on, Christian writers tried to explain Hellenic paganism through degeneration of Biblical religion. According to the Scriptural theory, all mythological legends (including Greek mythology)