The Oneiroi: Dreams, Children of Night (Hesiod)

Catalogue ID: 01-cosmogony-theogony/052-oneiroi-dreams-nyx-hesiodic

Cycle: Cosmogony / Theogony — Night’s brood / Dreams

Version line: Hesiodic — the tribe of Dreams (Oneiroi) born of Nyx

Sources: Hesiod, *Theogony* 211–212; cf. Homer, *Odyssey* 19.560–567 (gates of dreams, secondary)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/01-cosmogony-theogony/052-oneiroi-dreams-nyx-hesiodic.md

Characters

Dreams — Night’s children; collective tribe of dream-visions
Ker — sibling Sleep
Nyx — mother

Places

Gates of dreams — secondary poetic geography only
Night’s generative darkness — Hesiodic origin

Themes

Narrative

Hesiod says Night bore the tribe of Dreams (Oneiroi) with Moros, Ker, Thanatos, and Hypnos. They are not named individuals in the *Theogony* but a collective offspring—the swarm of dream-visions that visit sleepers. Homer later speaks of true and false dreams by the gates of horn and ivory; epic also sends deceptive dreams (as Zeus’s dream to Agamemnon), yet those are narrative devices. Hesiod’s point is parentage: Dreams belong to Night’s household, kin to Sleep and Death. Catalogue the Oneiroi as Night’s dream-brood, separate from any single Homeric dream-embassy.