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Greek mythology camelot124 asked this question on 5/14/2002: Who is the mother of sleep, dreams, and death?

beainsc gave this response on 5/14/2002: HYPNOS (Latin Name: Somnus) was the personification of SLEEP and the twin brother of THANATOS (DEATH). The two brothers had their home in the underworld near the palace of their mother Nyx, goddess of the night. Hypnos was depicted as a nude young man with wings on his shoulders or temples. He held in his right hand a horn of sleep-inducing opium and in his left a poppy stem or else he was shown holding a branch dripping with the dew of the river Lethe. Sometimes Hypnos was depicted as a bearded old man with wings on his shoulders and leaning on a staff or inverted torch. The one thousand ONEIROI were personifications of DREAMS. These black-winged daimones issued forth from a cavern near the border of Hades. The chiefest and most skilfull of the Oneiroi are named Morpheus, Ikelos or Phobetor and Phantasos according to Ovid. The common Oneiroi form the dreams of the common man while these three form the dreams of kings and chieftains.

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