Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Cross-referenced catalogue index

Apate: Deceit, Child of Night (Hesiod)

Catalogue ID: 01-cosmogony-theogony/049-apate-deceit-nyx-hesiodic

Cycle: Cosmogony / Theogony — Night’s brood / personified deceit

Version line: Hesiodic — Apate (Deceit) among Nyx’s children

Sources: Hesiod, *Theogony* 224

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/01-cosmogony-theogony/049-apate-deceit-nyx-hesiodic.md

Characters

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Themes

Narrative

Hesiod lists Apate (Deceit, Trickery) among Night’s daughters, in the cluster with Philotes, Geras, and Eris. She is not given a story in the *Theogony*: she is the personified power of fraud and beguilement that darkens mortal dealings. Homeric epic later stages deceptions (Hera’s seduction of Zeus on Ida is called *dios apate*), but those plots are narrative uses of deceit, not the Hesiodic birth of the personification. Isolate Apate as Night’s child—cosmic genealogy of trickery—apart from any single Iliadic stratagem.