Morpheus
{{Short description|Deity associated with sleep and dreams}}
{{Other uses}}
Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the {{langx|grc|μορφή}} meaning 'form, shape')Griffin, p. 249; Grimal, s.v. Morpheus, p. 296; LSJ [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dmorfh%2F s.v. μορφ-ή]. is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's Metamorphoses he is the son of Somnus (Sleep, the Roman counterpart of Hypnos) and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name began to stand more generally for the god of dreams, or of sleep.Kearns, s.v. Morpheus p. 968; Griffin, p. 248.
Ovid
The only ancient mention of Morpheus occurs in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where Ovid tells of the story of Ceyx and his wife Alcyone who were transformed into birds. In Ovid'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, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.163.xml 11.585–677].
Ovid makes Morpheus one of the thousand sons of Somnus (Sleep).Grimal, s.v. Morpheus, p. 296; Tripp, s.v. Somnus, p. 534; Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.165.xml 11.633–677]. 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."Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.165.xml 11.633–638]. As with other gods associated with sleep, Ovid presents Morpheus as winged.Grimal, s.v. Morpheus, p. 296; Griffin, p. 243; Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.167.xml 11.652–653].
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, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.163.xml 11.613]. 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".Griffin, p. 249; Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.165.xml 11.638–643].
The three brothers' names are found nowhere earlier than Ovid and are perhaps Ovidian inventions.Griffin, p. 249. Tripp calls these three figures "literary, not mythical concepts".Tripp, s.v. Somnus, p. 534. 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
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 Charles Le Brun
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 derived the name of the opiate drug morphine from the name of Morpheus.
- 4197 Morpheus, an Apollo asteroid and near-Earth object.
See also
{{Sister project links |auto=no |b=no |c= |n=no |q= no |s=no |v=no |wikt=}}
- {{annotated link|Hypnos}}
- {{annotated link|Oneiroi}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
- {{Citation|last=Griffin| first=A. H. F.| title=A Commentary on Ovid, Metamorphoses XI| series=Hermathena| volume=162/163| location=Dublin| year=1997| issue=162/163| pages=1–290| publisher=Trinity College Dublin| jstor=23041237}}.
- Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, {{ISBN|9780631201021}}.
- {{Citation| last=Kearns| first=E.| chapter=Morpheus| title=Oxford Classical Dictionary|editor1=S. Hornblower |editor2=A. Spawforth | edition=3rd rev.| place=Oxford| year=1996| isbn=9780198661726| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198661726}}.
- Ovid. Metamorphoses, Volume II: Books 9-15. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library No. 43. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1916. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL043/1916/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
- {{cite book |last=Tripp |first=Edward |title=Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell Co |edition=First |date=June 1970 |isbn=069022608X }}
{{Authority control}}