Who was the Greek god of dreams?

Aims 2023-09-20 12:35:40 UTC #1

Ok, I think I'm going crazy but who was the Greek god of dreams?Morpheus or Apollo?

Because every source I'm finding says it was Morpheus, morphine was, according to my sources, named after him even because of that. But my philosophy teacher insists in was Apolo.

We're studying Nietzsche...

Edit: for clarification this came up when I asked her if should actually interprete the Apolo and Dionysus in his book as the exactly the same ones from Greek culture, or as their own thing because all the sources were saying that Apolo was anything but the god of dreams, and that was wreaking my brain. Also I'm now wondering if this one of those case where something got lost in translation, because the original book was in German or whatever, and since, according to the wiki, Nietzsche studied ancient Greece, and morphine had been a thing for decades... yeah, if Morpheus really is the god of dreams, and not Apolo, I can't see how he would mix them up... Maybe he was talking about dreams as like inspiration? Since Apolo was the god of art and music?

Stargazer31 2023-09-20 12:44:43 UTC #2

Morpheus/Hypnos was the god of sleep so I suppose they fall under his domain

Aeneas1 2023-09-20 13:21:51 UTC #3

Actually, dreams were not often personified by the Greeks. But whenever they DID personify them, they portrayed them as separate male characters who are all brothers of Hypnos, and the sons of Nyx, the primordial goddess of night. I know, it is a complicated subject.

Aims 2023-09-20 15:48:55 UTC #4

Wait, they were the same entity? My sources say he was the son of Hypnos- This is one of those case where everyone has a different interpretation, isn't it?

Aims 2023-09-20 15:51:51 UTC #5

So there was possibility that someone used Apolo for one of those personifications? I read that he also gave people prophetic visions. Maybe those visions could come in the form of dreams?

vapidink 2023-09-20 16:30:09 UTC #6

Apollo was the god of music, prophecy, and the sun, if I'm remembering correctly. Hypnos was the god of sleep, but the gods or demigods of dreams were the Oneiros/Oneiroi. They were personifications of dreams and children of Nyx: Morpheus, phantasos, and Ikelos/Phobetor.

LunarScyphozoa 2023-09-20 17:31:50 UTC #7

The thing about mythology is.. there really isn’t much consistency in who’s related to who, who is also someone else, etc.

moontokkym 2023-09-20 17:37:19 UTC #8

So basically the Greek Pantheon and who's god of what changes DRASTICALLY depending on when you're looking at and what you're reading, even over the many centuries of ancient Greece.

Apollo in himself has been God of a lot, and what we know him most for today (being God of the sun and Artemis' twin) came into his wheelhouse after he was adopted into the Roman pantheon. Apollo is also thought to have been an imported God from elsewhere as most of his origin myths have him arriving from foreign lands before having an actual birth myth in Delphe.

Basically Apollo could be God of anything. Also philosophers tend to reinterpret mythological figures as a rule to become tools to explain their philosophy, they rarely keep only to original textual meaning. You could say Apollo is in a way the God of dreams because he is often seen as a God of art and creativity, things also associated with dreams.

daeygurart 2023-09-21 14:28:29 UTC #9

Morpheus was the god of dreams. Hypnos is his father and is the god of sleep. Apollo is the god of prophecy, music, truth, and healing.