Known to the Greeks as Hypnos and Thanatos, the two sibling deities are more familiar today in their Roman incarnations, Somnus and Mors. Ovid described their home as lying beyond the reach of the sun’s rays in a remote and quiet valley. Its mouth was clogged by poppies whose drowsy scent suffused the heavy air inside its shadowy depths. There Somnus, a handsome youth with a crown of poppies around his brow, dreamed away the days on an ebony couch hemmed in by black drapes. His principal assistant, Morpheus, hovered by his side, and above his head flitted dreams, waiting to be carried by Mercury, the gods’ messenger, to sleeping humans. Meanwhile, in a remote corner of the cave, sat a very different figure. Somnus’s companion was Mors, or Death, dressed in a black cloak over impenetrable armour and with the face of a corpse. His eyes were always fixed on an hourglass to note when the sands of life were running out for someone—when they stopped he would venture forth to cut down another mortal victim.
Tony Allan and Sara Maitland, TITANS AND OLYMPIANS: Greek & Roman Myth (via heckyeahhermes)
