Hypnos

There's a moment much later, once the world is full and busy and the Olympians are squabbling over mortals like children over toys.

There's a moment when Zeus himself, king of the gods, thunder in his fists, corners Nix's son, Hypnos, the god of sleep, in fury.

And Hypnos runs.

He runs straight to his mother.

And Zeus stops.

Men are dying by the thousand.

And on a mountaintop far from the blood and the bronze, the queen of the gods is about to do something no one will forgive her for.

Hypnos.

One carries far-seeing light for those on Earth, but the other, baleful night." In addition to Aether and Hemera, Nyx, through parthenogenesis, a kind of divine virgin birth, independently produced an array of other children, who for the most part account for a great number of the abstract forces and phenomena that define what it is to be human.

Hypnos, sleep.

Thanatos, death.

Moros, doom.

Her presence is constant but rarely acknowledged, woven into the fabric of every story without demanding the spotlight, and perhaps that's why even Zeus feared her.

In Homer's Iliad, there's a moment that speaks volumes about her power.

During the Trojan War, Hera devises a plan to distract Zeus by putting him to sleep, but to do so, she must enlist Hypnos, the god of sleep, and son of Nyx.

Hypnos initially refuses, recalling the last time he dared to put Zeus to sleep, a move that nearly cost him his life.