Hypnos

* Morpheus (Son)
* Phobetor (Son)
* Phantasos (Son)

**Hypnos**, also called **Somnus**, is the God of Sleep from Greco-Roman Mythology. He is the son of Nyx, twin brother of Thanatos, and the father of the Oneiroi, including Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos.

## Overview

In Greek mythology, **Hypnos** is the personification of sleep; the Roman equivalent is known as **Somnus**. He is the brother of Thanatos, and he had a 'thousand' sons, the Oneiroi, who appear in dreams 'mimicking many forms'. Ovid named three of the sons: Morpheus, who appears in human guise, Phobetor, who appears as beasts, and Phantasos, who appears as inanimate objects.

## Appearance

Hypnos appears as a lanky teenage boy with grayish-pale skin, fluffy and curly white hair, and droopy golden eyes. He is often shown wearing a red-colored sleep mask over his eyes and covering himself in a thick, quilted comforter, though he does wear pajama-like velvet robes underneath with large wing-shaped pauldrons.

Like his twin brother, he also possesses a pair of feathered-wings located in his back, though unlike Thanatos, he mostly keeps them hidden and keeps himself levitated with magic. In addition, his wings are snow-white and resemble a swan's wings in comparison to Thanatos' black wings.

## Personality

As the [God of Sleep], it comes to no one's surprise to know that Hypnos spends most of his time asleep. He could sleep anywhere and anytime, regardless of the circumstances. More often than not, he uses the time he's awake making lists - and doodling on them - than actually doing what's on the lists. Regardless, due to him always finishing his work on time and his important role is maintaining his authority over the Underworld, Hades more-or-less ignores his questionable work ethic.

Although he is a lazy person, he takes great care in his duties as a god and is more than willing to help others with their sleeping problems provided that they ask. In ancient Greece, he had a reputation of always helping those who earnestly prayed to him. However, because of tasks from a certain goddess, he now pays more attention about what he's been asked to do.

In comparison to other gods, he is a rather attentive father, always watching over and guiding them inside of their dreams. As much as she hates to admit it, Hera once stated that he is - surprisingly - the only god in their pantheon allowed to call himself a parent without having to feel ashamed. According to Phobetor, he has a preference for demigods in general, regardless if they are his children or not.

Despite his laid-back attitude, much like other Greco-Roman gods, he has a cruel and twisted side to him that raises its head whenever he is crossed. As the son of Nyx and Erebus, two primordial gods, and the twin brother of [God of Death], he's undoubtedly among the most powerful minor gods within the pantheon. Thanatos himself admitted that, if Hypnos truly focused on the fight, 9 out of 10 times it would be Thanatos who would be defeated.

He is extremely strict toward the Oneiroi, not accepting any mistake coming from the dream gods, and can be easily infuriated if one of the rules he's laid down is crossed. He also has a twisted sense of humor, finding entertainment in psychologically tormenting those who have annoyed him and even laughs out loud as they are mentally destroyed.

## History

### Early Years

Hypnos is among the many gods created by Nyx. He is the younger twin brother of Thanatos, the God of Death, and is the older brother of Oneiros, the original God of Dreams. As a young child, he was prone to use his divine powers immaturely, much to the other gods' chargin.

### The Titanomachy

During the Titanomachy, he and the rest of the chthonic gods swore an oath of servitude to Hades and the Olympian dynasty, and as such, he became Hades' Master of Propaganda, in charge of spreading dreams and visions that would establish Hades' authority as the new [God of the Underworld].

When news came out about Oneiros' switch to the Titans' side, as his closest brother and best friend, Hypnos felt personally betrayed by Oneiros. No one was sure what happened between the two of them, just that Hypnos disappeared one day in the middle of battle for nearly a decade before returning, drenched in gold blood and carrying Oneiros' mutilated corpse. Since then, Hypnos became the new God of Dreams, delivering messages and orders from the gods to mortals in their dreams.

#### The Oneiroi

Sometimes after the Titanomachy had ended, Hypnos started to sleep around with the underworldly spirits and chthonic gods, presumably as means to cope with his PTSD. This resulted in the birth of the Oneiroi, Divine Spirits of Dreams whose number reached the thousand, with his first and oldest sons being Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos.

### Heracles' Siege

One day, Hypnos was approached by Hera who asked him to put Zeus to sleep with his power so that she could shower Heracles, who was returning from Troy after he had besieged the Trojan king Laomedon, with misfortunes without Zeus' interference. At first, he was reluctant as he wanted to stay in his temple and sleep, but eventually, Hera was able to convince him.

At first, their plan was quite successful, until Zeus suddenly woke up and found out he had been put to sleep by Hypnos. Furious, Zeus then chased him across the Mediterranean Basin, throwing lightning bolts left and right, and would have struck him out of sight in the sea from the bright sky had he not reached Nyx's palace in time.

Due to her overprotectiveness, Nyx asked Zeus to forgive him, which he only agreed because of his respect for her power as a primordial god and for maternal virtues. He then warned him that he would be justly punished if he used his powers on the gods without his order again.

### Crush on Endymion

One night, in one of his rare trips to the mortal world, Hypnos met and fell in love with the sleeping form of Endymion, King of Elis and a demigod son of Zeus. So enthralled by his beauty, every night he would personally come to his palace and bless him with good rest, even laying beside him some nights while pretending to be a couple. However, he didn't make a move on Endymion while he was awake as he "had the personality of drying paint".

One day, while he was minding his own business, Hera appeared to him and asked about Endymion. Feeling suspicious, he began to question her about why she would want to know about one of Zeus' bastards, not knowing he had fallen into her traps. She then revealed that she had overheard Selene's meeting with Zeus early on, about how they were planning to make him a god so Endymion could be Selene's immortal consort. Heartbroken, he decided to mess with the *apotheosis* ritual and caused Endymion to fall into an eternal slumber, so he would "always be [Hypnos']".

### The *Iliad*

#### Tricking Zeus... Again

During the Trojan War, angered at the tides of war, Hera devised a plot to trick Zeus and help the Achaeans win the war. She decided that, in order to successfully trick him, she needed to make him so enamored with her that he would fall for the trick.

As such, she beautified herself with perfume oils and priceless jewelry, even coming to Aphrodite and borrowed her enchanted girdle to become even more supernaturally beautiful. However, she knew that this was not enough and she needed Hypnos' help for this to work.

Under heavy disguise, Hera came down to Hypnos' sacred temple at Lemnos to ask him for help, though he was reluctant as he still remembered Zeus' fury from the last time he "helped" Hera with something. Because of this, Hera first offered him a beautiful golden throne made by Hephaestus himself and a footstool to go with it but he refused. After some bargaining, Hera finally got him to agree by promising that he would be married to Pasithea - Goddess of Relaxation and one of the Charites, whom he had always wanted to marry. However, before he left Lemnos, Hypnos made Hera swear on the Styx so that he would be ensured that he would marry Pasithea.

Hera went to see Zeus on Gargarus, the topmost peak of Mount Ida. Zeus was extremely taken by her and suspected nothing as Hypnos was shrouded in a thick mist and hidden upon a pine tree that was close to where Hera and Zeus were staying. After having to watch the couple doing it, Hypnos used his power on Zeus and put him to sleep, with Hera in his arms. Afterward, he personally traveled to the ships of the Achaeans to tell Poseidon that he could now give them a victory while Zeus was asleep.

Because of Hypnos' involvement, the war changed its course to Hera's favor, and Zeus never found out that Hypnos had tricked him one more time until much, much later when the "Iliad" was published. For Hypnos himself, he described the event as one of the most annoying things to ever happened in his life and claimed to have bathed in the Lethe dozens of time just to forget Zeus and Hera's sex scene.

#### Sarpedon's Death

When Sarpedon, Son of Zeus and King of Lycia, was killed by Patroclus on the battlefield, a violent struggle ensued over the body of the fallen demigod. The Achaeans succeeded in gaining his armor, which was later given as a prize in Patroclus' funeral games, but Zeus had Apollo rescued his half-brother's corpse. Afterward, the corpse was delivered to Thanatos and Hypnos to be cleaned, purified, and treated, before taking back to Lycia for proper funeral honors.

### The *Aeneid*

While Aeneas was making his voyage to find a new home for the Trojan refugees, Hypnos - under the Roman alias **Somnus** - caused Palinurus, the helmsman of Aeneas' ship, to fall asleep while steering the ship at night. After taking the form of Phorbas, another shipmate, he appeared to Palinurus and offered to take over, so that Palinurus might rest awhile. When Palinurus refused the offer, Somnus sprinkled his head with Lethean water, which made him fall asleep before being pushed overboard by Somnus.

Despite this, Palinurus didn't die just yet, but instead survived the plunge and washed ashore after four days near Velia, and was killed there and left unburied. Eventually, after being nagged by Melinoë and Trivia for *years*, Somnus sent some Oneiroi to the locals and had them come and build him a mound. Since then, the place was named Cape Palinuro in Palinurus' honor.

## Equipment

**Thirteenth Spindle(Accursed Rose of Eternal Slumber)**: Hypnos' main weapon of choice. It is a golden staff whose top resembles that of a spinning wheel. The staff is his Symbol of Power and can be used as a magical foci for him to concentrate his ethereal energy, upon which the spinning wheel will generate an aurora-colored aura that induces visions of death and tortures into the target's mind.

## Trivia

* His name "Hypnos" literally means "sleep".
* His attributes include poppies, cottonwood, an inverted torch, and the Lethe river.
* In ancient Greek art, he is often depicted as having little wings on his head.
* In ancient Greece, it was believed that he owned half of the lives of all humans.
* The island Lemnos is sacred to him, even being described as his very own dream-island.
* He is the only god to still - unironically - call Nyx, Erebus, and Tartarus "mommy" and "daddies".
* Excluding Orpheus, he is the most musically talented member of the House of Hades.
* According to Megaera, he is a "one-man propaganda department".
* The words "hypnotize" and "hypnosis" derived from his name.
* Somnolence, a state of near-sleep or desire for sleep, is named after his Roman alias, Somnus.
	+ Sleep disorders like hypersomnia and insomnia are also named after Somnus.