9H

9h

9H (Nyx) is a painting from the series Caligo. Nyx is the primordial Greek goddess of the night. She stood at or near the beginning of creation and mothered great many deities that all had something to do with the dark sides of life. For instance there was the son Hypnos (Sleep) and son Thanatos (Death).

Her eyes were supposedly dark and hypnotic and she is wife to Erebus (Darkness). She was a figure of such exceptional power and beauty that she was feared by Zeus himself.

View more paintings from the series Caligo.

Title/Titel/Titel/Títolo #9H, Acrylic and oil on canvas/ Akryl und Öl auf Leinwand/Akryl og olie på lærred/acrílico e óleo sobre tela 100x100cm.

9h in situ
Hypnos

The inspiration for the painting of Nyx in Caligo turned out to be quite arbitrary. It came from seeing a bronze bust of her offspring, the dopey chap ‘Hypnos’, whose name means sleep and has given name to “hypnosis”. The thought here was: “what might his mother actually look like?” She would share some traits with her son, such as wing(s) sprouting from her temples (difficult birth surely) or she would have very, very, dark Greek eyes. 

Notably, one of the two wings has fallen off the sculpture, and in a way, that has made it all the more interesting to look at.

Creative Commons image attribution. Virtusincertus