General Notes

[FAMILY.FTW]

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.