Nyx (2024)

Nyx is the Greek primordial goddess of the night and hellhounds. She carries the mantle of night inher chariotpulled by two dark horses Shade and Shadow, covering the world withdarkness. Nyx is one of the first beings to have sprung from the void of Chaos.Her Roman form is Nox.

History

Early life

Nyx was born directly from Chaos and Tartarus, two of the first protogenoi.She livesin Tartarusin the Mansion of Night, where she stays during the day and leaves during the night.

Nyx married her older brotherErebus(Darkness and Mist) and had many children with him. She also had children on her own, such asher daughterHemera (Day), who left Tartaruswhen Nyx entered it, creating night and day.

In ancient times, Nyx, her daughter Hemera (whom she usually fights with),her son Aither, and the starswere the only constant company of Ouranos.

Trials of Heracles

Under Hera's orders, Nyx's son Hypnosput Zeus to sleep so the Olympian goddess could showerHercules with misfortune without Zeusinterfering.Zeus soon found out about Hypnos' involvement and furiously chased him. When Hypnos quickly fled to his mother, Zeus ceased his anger out of fear of Nyx.

In Series

After the Second Titan War, she lets Hypnos hide in her domain. One day, she finds Nico di Angelo and soon Ephialtes and Otis appear and ask for the son of Hades. Soon, Nico slips away, but is traumatized when he sees the Mansion of Night. Nyx taunts him before handing the boy over to the giants, wanting to see him again if he survives.

The Heroes of Olympus

The House of Hades

Even before meeting with Nyx, nearly every creature in Tartarus shows a fear of her (even some Giants and Titans) to the point of only referring to her as Night. However, visiting Akhlys for the Death Mist requires Percy and Annabeth to pass close by Nyx's domain if they hope to escape from Tartarus and close the Doors of Death. Unfortunately, after Percy and Annabeth manage to gain the Death Mist she double crosses them though Percy and Annabeth manage to defeat her. However, they wander too close to Nyx's domain and she appears to kill them.

At first, Annabeth and Percy are too stunned to speak, both because of Nyx's intimidating entrance and because she is able to see them, even with the Death Mist. Percy also worries that the horses that pull her chariot will eat them. Nyx admits to them that she wouldn't allow her horses to do such a thing, as she wants to do it herself.

Annabeth uses Nyx's wording against her and tells Nyx not to kill herself. This causes Nyx enough confusion that Annabeth quickly takes charge of the situation and convinces Nyx that they are on a tour of Tartarus, but Nyx isn't part of it. This greatly offends Nyx as she gets more and more wrapped up in Annabeth's lie. When Annabeth claims it may be because Nyx isn't important enough and how they could meet some of Nyx's children instead, Nyx becomes furious and summons all her children, including Geras, Eris, and more minor gods and monsters, which are all the worst terrors in existence. As Percy and Annabeth prepare to try and take a picture, they mention the Doors of Death and Nyx tells them that the only way to reach it is by entering her home, the Mansion of Night. After hearing this, they agree to take a picture with her favorite child. After hearing this, her children begin to fight amongst themselves over who is the worst terror. When Nyx is blinded by darkness, Percy and Annabeth slip past her and run into her mansion.

Nyx and her children eventually recover and chase them into the Mansion of Night, but not before Percy jumps over the River Acheron with Annabeth on his back out the other side of the mansion, out of her grasp.

The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure

Nyx sends Nico nightmares to torment him as he and Will search for Bob. After the Titan is freed, she and her children confront Nico. The goddess unfolds her wings to reveal an army consisting of Cynocephali, Telekhines, Pit Scorpions, and dark pegasi, as well as Nemesis and Hypnos and Dr. Thorn. As Nyx starts to talk about tourism to her realm increasing, Nemesis and Hypnos silently criticize their mother’s optimism for tourism as Nico demands Nyx let him and his companions go. Dr. Thorn goes to attack Nico in revenge, but Nyx traps him in a vortex of darkness. A fight breaks out and Nico and his companions manage to hold off Nyx's forces with Will managing to hurt one of Nyx's wings. Soon Will goes limp and Nico rushes over to Will. Nyx subdues Bob as Nico realizes she will do anything to keep them in her domain. Soon Bob breaks free and him and Small Bob attack Nyx as her children and minions watch. Not long after the Mansion of Night catches on fire and Bob and Small Bob run over to the demigods, they pick up Will and leave Nyx's realm.

When the goddess of night catches up with them, she accuses the three of arson, but they pin the blame on her children as Nemesis, Hypnos, and Epiales appear from behind. Nyx ignores her children's pleas to stop as Nico, Will, and Bob say they have changed and so can Nyx. She ignores their words as she pushes Nico to reveal a detail he left out about telling the truth when the time comes and that if Nyx and her children fail to stop Nyx, Nico's children will. The four look at Nyx in confusion and the goddess calls forth over a dozen shadowy figures and claims they are the son of Hades's offspring. As Nico is tormented by his past memories each of the Cacodemons represent, he overcomes his grief and frees them, allowing him and his companions to escape as Nyx's children hold her off. She breaks free and tries to cross the River Acheron, but fails as she is too set in her ways to ignore the pain.

Appearance

Nyx was described as a churning figure of ash and smoke, as big as the Athena Parthenos(which was 40 feet tall). Her face was hard to see except for the pinpoints of her eyes, which shone like quasars. When her wings beat, waves of darkness rolled over the cliffs. Her dress was void black, mixed with the colors of a space nebula as if galaxies were being born in her bodice.

Personality

As the embodiment of Night, Nyx had a terrifying presence, temporarilystunning Percy and Annabeth into silence. Despite this, she is quite gullible, easily falling for the heroes' story. Though she is proud that most of her children are terrifying, Nyx is uncomfortable when someone asks her who is her favorite child. Even years later Nyx has failed to realize that Percy and Annabeth were only tricking her and actually took their advice to heart to create brochures. It's revealed in The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure that Nyx is emotionally and mentally abusive to her children such as shown by her treatment of Nemesis and Hypnos. This causes them and Epiales to turn against her.

Nyx develops an obsession with Nico di Angelo and making him embrace his darkness and stay in Tartarus while also imprisoning Bob the Titan and trying to get him to change back into Iapetus. However, Nyx is also a huge perfectionist, believing that she was as good as she was because she wasn't different and hating that Bob wouldn't revert to his Titanic roots and that Nico accepted the mortal world as his home as opposed to the darkness, which Nyx claimed was his true home.

Due to Nyx only knowing pain, she is unable to cross the River Acheron which physically hurts her. Despite Nyx's actions, Nico is left feeling genuine sympathy for her, telling Will Solace that he gets the appeal of constantly holding onto the darkness. Nico thinks that it's Nyx's way of being in control - she was born of Chaos and Tartarus and Nyx's whole existence is darkness, suffering and death.

Abilities

As one of the Protogenoi, Nyx is an extremely powerful deity,feared by many Titans and Gods. Nico once referred to Nyx as even worse than her sister Gaea. Zeus himself feared Nyx enough to retract all threats against her son Hypnos, suggesting that even she is stronger than him. However, being made of darkness, Nyx is vulnerable to light users, such as Will Solace, who was able to burn her with photokinesis. Nyx's own children, working together, can temporarily restrain her.

• Umbrakinesis: As the Protogenos of Night, Nyx has divine authority and absolute control over shadows and darkness. Due to this, less powerful users of umbrakinesis cannot resist her, with Nico being unable to break out of Nyx's shadow tendril when she grips him with it.
  • Night Empowerment: Nyx becomes stronger at night or in dark places (e.g. Tartarus).
  • Darkness Generation: Nyx can shoot solid bolts of darkness, surround enemies in pitch-black clouds of dark space, and solidify shadows into virtually impenetrable shields or tendrils.
  • Shadow Travel: Nyx is able to travel anywhere she desired at incredible speeds through shadows.
  • Night Vision: Nyx is able to see clearly in even total darkness. Ironically, despite literally being the Night, enough darkness will blind her.
  • Umbrakinetic Vitakinesis: By using darkness, Nyx can heal herself and others.
  • Shadow Camouflage: Nyx can use shadows to cover herself in darkness to become invisible.
  • Cacodemon Creation: Nyx is able to take the darkness from others and turn it into cacodemons, effectively making her the mother of the demons and the being that she creates them out of the other parent.
• Parthenogenesis: As shown inPercy Jackson's Greek Gods, Nyx managed to become pregnant with severaldivine children all by herself, such as Hemera.
• Control of Nocturnal Animals: Nyx is able to control nocturnal animals, such as owls and bats.
• Circadian Manipulation: Nyx is capable of controlling the movement and rotation of planets, which enables her to change the flow of night and day.
• Tartarus Inhabitants Regeneration Control: Nyx has a degree of control over the regeneration of Tartarus' inhabitants, trapping a reforming Bob in a permanent regeneration cycle in an attempt to force him to become Iapetus again. She also made his regeneration pod incredibly durable, forcing Nico and Will to combine their powers in order to free Bob from it.

Children

Trivia

• In The House of Hades, Akhlys and Annabeth Chase refer to Nyx as being older than Gaea, thus making her the oldest daughter of Chaos. However, in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Nyx is said to have been created after the emergence of Gaea, Ouranos, Pontos, and Tartarus.
• While Nyx and Tartarus were usually siblings, the Riordanverse had Nyx be Tartarus (and Chaos's) daughter; as mentioned in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Percy himself admits that he has no idea how Chaos and Tartarus had her.
• The International Astronomical Union named one of Pluto's moons Nix in honor of the Greek goddess. They spelled it with an "i" because there was already an asteroid with her namesake.
• Nyx is a shadowy figure in Greek mythology but from the extracts about her, it is gleaned that she was a figure of great beauty and power.
  • Her son Moros (Doom) is mysterious as well and is believed to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, as he drives all things to their ends.
• In some myths,Styx, the goddess of the boundary between life and death, is Nyx's daughter.
• Her Egyptian equivalent is Kauket.
• Her Norse equivalent is Nótt.