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Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with
File:Aurora weckt Morpheus.jpg, ''Aurora wakes Morpheus'' by Bartolomeo Altomonte (1769)
File:Guerin Pierre Narcisse - Morpheus and Iris 1811.jpg, ''Morpheus and Iris'', by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1811 Hermitage Museum
File:René-Antoine Houasse - Morpheus Awakening as Iris Draws Near, 1690.jpg, ''Morpheus awakening as Iris draws near'' by René-Antoine Houasse (1690)
File:Luca Giordano 009.jpg, Fresco in the gallery of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence: ''Charon's boat, the sleep of Night and Morpheus'' by Luca Giordano (1684–1686)
File:Le Brun Le Soir ou Morphée.JPG, ''Evening or Morpheus'' by
Online version at Harvard University Press
* {{Authority control Dreams in religion Greek gods Greek sleep deities Roman gods Sleep gods Metamorphoses characters
Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep
Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and certain Sensory nervous system, sensory activity is inhibited. During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with th ...
and dream
A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...
s. In Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
's ''Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...
'' he is the son of Somnus (Sleep, the Roman counterpart of Hypnos
In Greek mythology, Hypnos (; Ancient Greek: , 'sleep'), also spelled Hypnus, is the personification of sleep. The Roman equivalent is Somnus. His name is the origin of the word hypnosis. Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias wrote that Hypnos was t ...
) and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, the name began to stand more generally for the god of dreams, or of sleep.
Ovid
The only ancient mention of Morpheus occurs in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...
'', where Ovid tells of the story of Ceyx and his wife Alcyone
In Greek mythology, Alcyone (or dubiously Halcyone) (; ) and Ceyx (; ) were a wife and husband who incurred the wrath of the god Zeus for their romantic hubris.
Etymology
Alkyóne comes from alkyón (), which refers to a sea-bird with a mour ...
who were transformed into birds. In Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
's account, Juno (via the messenger goddess Iris) sends Morpheus to appear to Alcyone in a dream, as her husband Ceyx, to tell her of his death.
Ovid makes Morpheus one of the thousand sons of Somnus (Sleep). His name derives from the Greek word for form (μορφή), and his function was apparently to appear in dreams in human guise. According to Ovid "no other is more skilled than he in representing the gait, the features, and the speech of men; the clothing also and the accustomed words of each he represents." As with other gods associated with sleep, Ovid presents Morpheus as winged.
Ovid called Morpheus and his brothers, the other sons of Somnus, the ''Somnia'' ("dream shapes"), saying that they appear in dreams "mimicking many forms". Ovid gives names to two more of these sons of Sleep. One called Icelos ('Like'), by the gods, but Phobetor ('Frightener') by men, "takes the form of beast or bird or the long serpent", and Phantasos ('Fantasy'), who "puts on deceptive shapes of earth, rocks, water, trees, all lifeless things".
The three brothers' names are found nowhere earlier than Ovid and are perhaps Ovidian inventions. Tripp calls these three figures "literary, not mythical concepts". However, Griffin suggests that this division of dream forms between Morpheus and his brothers, possibly including their names, may have been of Hellenistic origin.Griffin, pp. 179, 249.
Gallery
Charles Le Brun
Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...
File:Virgil Solis - Ceyx-Morpheus Alcyone.jpg, ''Morpheus appears to Alcyone''. Engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI, 650–749.
File:Johann Wilhelm Baur - Morpheus in the house of Ceyx, before Alcyone.jpg, ''Morpheus appears to Alcyone''. Engraving (or etching more likely) by Bauer for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI, 633–676.
File:Certowicz,Teofila (1862-1918)-Morpheus-MNK II-rz-61-National Museum in Krakow.jpg, ''Morpheus''. Sculpture by Teofila Certowicz (1889), National Museum in Kraków
Namesake
*Friedrich Sertürner
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner (; 19 June 1783 – 20 February 1841) was a German pharmacist and a pioneer of alkaloid chemistry. He is best known for his discovery of morphine, which he isolated from opium in 1804, and for conducting tests, ...
derived the name of the opiate drug morphine
Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
from the name of Morpheus.
* 4197 Morpheus, an Apollo asteroid and near-Earth object
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit a ...
.
See also
* *Notes
References
* . * Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, . * . *Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
. ''Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...
, Volume II: Books 9-15''. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...
No. 43. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou.
The pres ...
, 1916Online version at Harvard University Press
* {{Authority control Dreams in religion Greek gods Greek sleep deities Roman gods Sleep gods Metamorphoses characters