By the Gods!

Nyx

In Greek mythology, Nyx was the primordial goddess of the night. We’re talking old even for the gods, here. Three generations before Zeus ‘n the gang, two before the Titans came on the scene; Nyx is ancient stuff, guys. She was born of Chaos, the great primordial deity who existed before naught else was made. These initial gods, as they were born out of Chaos, became the foundations of the universe. Gaia, from who Zeus and the Olympians trace their ancestry, was a sister of Nyx, for example, and she was the living Earth itself.

Most of what we know of Nyx comes from Hesiod’s Theogony, a history of the gods and the universe according to Greek paganism. Nyx, the night, was born, and then bore children with Erebus, the god of shadow and darkness: Aether (atmosphere), and Hemera (day). Later on, she made a few kids on her own, without Erebus. Momus (blame), Moros (doom), Thanatos (death), Hypnos (sleep), Charon (the ferryman of Hades), and the Oneiroi (dreams)… 

Excuse me— there are more, I just need to catch my breath. Okay:

… the Hesperides, the Keres, the Moirae (the Fates), Nemesis (retribution), Apate (deception), Philotes (friendship), Geras (age) and Eris (strife) were all her kids. She was dedicated, you could say. 

In other Greek texts, Nyx was sometimes listed as the first principle deity, before Chaos (in these cases Chaos often wasn’t mentioned at all), so she was clearly held in high regard. There were a handful of cults devoted to the goddess of Night, though she was not an object of direct worship very often, as were the Olympians. She was given respect, to be sure, but not the same devotion we would see toward the more contemporary Greek gods.

The Eleventh Labour of Heracles

Originally Heracles had only been set ten labours as penance for killing his children, but because King Eurystheus was kind of a dick, he said that by receiving help killing the hydra and having the rivers clean out the Augean stables for him, that Heracles must submit to two additional tasks. Tasks that were so dangerous that King Eurystheus was almost guaranteed to get Heracles killed in the process.

As a wedding gift to Hera, Gaia gave her a tree that bore golden apples that gave eternal life to those who ate them. As far as wedding gifts go, that one kind of outshone the piles of toasters, wine glasses and his-and-hers towels they were sure to have received. Hera had it put in the garden of the Hesperides farther west than the setting sun on the slopes of Mt. Atlas to keep it out of harms way. 

To find the way there Heracles needed knowledge from the old man of the sea, Nereus. Nereus shows up in Greek mythology from time to time as an old man who needs help crossing a stream. When a helpful traveler comes along and offers him a piggy-back ride to the other side, Nereus refuses to let go until the good Samaritan dies from exhaustion and incessant nagging. You can imagine how great his people skills were. In a sweet turnabout, Heracles snuck up on Nereus while he slept, and jumped on his back. Nereus realized how not-funny that was when it happened to him, and tried changing his form rapidly to shake Heracles off, but Heracles’ super strength allowed him to hold on until Nereus finally yelled:

“Ow ow ow! Go west! Like, really far west. Pass the sun, and keep going until you see a giant dude holding up the heavens. You can’t miss it.” 

“Simple enough” Thought Heracles, and down he jumped from the old man’s back and went on his merry way.

Along with the Hesperides (daughters of Atlas) who tended the garden there was also a giant snake that stood guard at the base of the golden apple tree. As fun as fighting that snake and murdering the Hesperides would’ve been, Heracles didn’t go to the garden first, he climbed the mountain to where he could talk to Atlas. Heracles offered to take up Atlas’ burden for a while if he would fetch the apples for him.

“My daughters would give me the apples, but that snake would totally kill me.”

“That thing?” Heracles replied. “No problem. Hydra-arrow!” Heracles shot his bow from the mountaintop, and the arrow sailed down into the garden.

“Wow, that’s a dead-ass snake. Okay, one order of golden apples coming up!”

Heracles shouldered the sky for what probably felt like a really long time before Atlas came back with a spring in his step, and apples in his hands. At this point Atlas was stoked to be able to move again, and he told Heracles that he could just take the apples back to Eurystheus himself. Heracles did not like that idea. He quickly thought up his new plan.

“Hmm… Alright Atlas, you can do that, but before you go, my Invincible-Lion cloak is all twisted under this heavy sky. Can you hold the heavens for a second while I adjust it?” Atlas resumed his old position and took the weight of the world off Heracles’ shoulders.

“You’re gonna take this back now right?”

“Yeah. I think I’m just gonna go.”

“Zeus-damnit.”

Heracles gathered up the apples and headed back to Eurystheus’ kingdom with only one more labour to go.