General Notes

[FAMILY.FTW]

Achlys ('Mist, darkness') Greek. The Mother who existed even before Chaos, and gave birth to it.

AKHLYS

Greek: AcluV Transliteration: Akhlys Translation: Misery
Latin Spelling: Achlys Roman Name: Miseria

Akhlys was the personification of misery and sadness.

Parents

Nowhere stated but presumably a daughter of Nyx
Hyginus Pref (on Miseria): Erebos & Nyx

"And beside them [the Keres and the Moirai] was standing Akhlys, dismal and dejected, green and pale, dirty-dry, fallen in on herself with hunger, knee-swollen, and the nails were grown long on her hands, and from her nostrils the drip kept running, and off her cheeks the blood dribbled to the ground, and she stood there, grinning forever, and the dust that had gathered and lay in heaps on her shoulders was muddy with tears." -Shield of Heracles 264-271

Sources:

Hesiod, Shield of Heracles
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Bio. and Myth.
Women of Classical Mythology
.

Achlys
She was the personification of Eternal Night, what was believed to have presaged Chaos. There was another who personified Misery, and Hesiod described her in the Shield of Heracles: "And beside them [the Keres and the Moirai] was standing Akhlys, dismal and dejected, green and pale, dirty-dry, fallen in on herself with hunger, knee-swollen, and the nails were grown long on her hands, and from her nostrils the drip kept running, and off her cheeks the blood dribbled to the ground, and she stood there, grinning forever, and the dust that had gathered and lay in heaps on her shoulders was muddy with tears." How pleasant.

Achlys
The Greek mother who was the first to exist, gave birth to Chaos.

In the beginning there was The One, Logos, the Will. In his mothers womb Logos floated, blind and alone, feeling and Knowing nothing.

In his utter Loneliness The One, shouted into the Void that was the womb. His mother, Sophia also Known as Achlys, ripped open and screamed in pain, her pains caused Vibrations that tore The One in twain. The Demiurge and his Dark Shadow Astaroth were born, neither being good nor evil, but a mirror of the other... now at a complete loss, for they had lost that which had made them whole



ACHLYS was the eternal night, said to have been the first being, even preexisting Chaos. Hesiod (Shield of Heracles 264), however, called her the personification of misery and sadness, and as such she was represented on the shield of Heracles. She was pale and emaciated, and her teeth constantly chattered while she wept. She had long fingernails, swollen knee-joints, bloody cheeks, and dust-covered shoulders. It is interesting that deep space and misery were thus equated, and that both were conceived as female.