In Hesiod's Theogony Erebus is presented among the earliest beings: an offspring of Chaos who, paired with Nyx (Night), is the parent of Aether and Hemera (Day). Other Greek and later Roman accounts vary: some Orphic or later traditions place Erebus differently in the cosmogony (e.g., associated with Chronos in certain accounts), and Roman authors such as Cicero and Hyginus use Erebus (with Nox) to generate a long list of personified forces (Aether/Day, Amor/Love, Metus/Fear, Mors/Death, Somnus/Sleep, Tenebrae/Darkness, etc.). These variant genealogies reflect differing literary and philosophical traditions rather than a single unified origin narrative.
The sources provided do not supply a fixed visual iconography or sensory description. Ancient texts treat Erebus primarily as an abstract personification (a primordial being) and as a named subterranean darkness or region of the underworld (Homeric usage refers to souls 'gathering from out of Erebus'), rather than as a consistently depicted anthropomorphic figure.
Ancient sources do not attribute active magical 'powers' in modern terms. Erebus's role is ontological and generative: as a primordial personification he figures in genealogies that produce other cosmic forces (notably Aether and Hemera in Hesiod) and in some traditions other personifications. As a toponym, Erebus names the enveloping darkness or interior of the underworld and is the locale through which souls pass; literary texts place chthonic beings (for example the Erinyes in Homer) within Erebus.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Aborigines (mythology)
A mytho-historical label used in Roman and general reference sources to denote the oldest inhabitants of a region (specifically central Italy in the cited Roman context). The term functions as an identity/category for original human populations rather than as a characterized supernatural being in the provided sources.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
Abundantia
Abundantia is the Roman divine personification of abundance and material plenty, used primarily in imperial propaganda and public iconography to signify secure grain supplies, wealth, and the promise of a 'Golden Age' under the emperor. She also appears in later medieval European folklore as Domina Abundia / Dame Habonde, a household benefactor in accounts condemned by ecclesiastical writers.
Community Record
- [1]Erebus - Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry 'Erebus' (summarizing classical sources including Hesiod, Homer, Cicero, Hyginus, Ovid, and other traditions)wiki
- [2]Erebus - Wikidata. Wikidata item for 'Erebus' (includes modern taxonomic reuse of the name)other
- [3]Dark Indulgence 05.28.23 Industrial | EBM | Dark Disco | Italo Dance Mixshow by Dj Scott Durand (archive). Archive.org item referencing modern cultural reuse of the name 'Erebus' (not used for mythological details)other
- [4]SHORT CUTS #38 - Paul Watson/Election Hot Mess (archive). Archive.org item referencing contemporary mention of 'Erebus' (not used for mythological details)other