Talk:Morpheus

Comments

The drug morphine derives its name from Morpheus based on its similar dream-inducing power.

Is morphine dream-inducing, or sleep-inducing? —This unsigned comment was added by 68.67.108.80 (talk • contribs) 2005-02-14 05:26:17 UTC.

It makes you sleep in a deep sleep and it takes away your pain _{This unsigned comment was added by User:63.193.184.2}

"Icelus assisted with those aspects of dreams that reflected reality. Phobetor made fearsome dreams (hence "phobia"). Phantasus produced tricky and unreal dreams (hence "fantasy", "phantasmagoria", etc.)." Just wondering, where did this information come from? I haven't seen it anywhere but here.

Yumecosmos 14:26, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the etymological part is at best misleading. The words "phobia" and "fantasy" were not derived from the names of the Oneiroi, they just share a common root. "Phantos" is "visible" in Greek, "phantasi" is "vision", and "Phantasus" is something akin to "the one who brings visions". Similarly, "phobos" is simply Greek for "fear"; "Phobetor" is probably something like "the bringer of fright" - the classical version of the Bogeyman.

Brother

There's a picture to the right of this article which says that Thanatos is Morpheus' half-brother. Yet the article insisted that Thanatos was his uncle. So i changed it.

Hypno is Morpheus' father/half-brother, so Thanatos is actually Morpheus' uncle/half-brother... It's a wonky Oedipus-esque kind of thing. I'm not going to make any changes, just explaining the confusion. :) 204.52.215.113 07:45, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm confused. On the Hypnos page it says Morpheus is his son. On this page Morpheus is both brother and son. Is there evidence to support both or either? Maybe this discrepancy could be acknowledged in the text or in the footnote. 5-11-08

According to Hesiod's Theogony; Morpheus, Phobetor and Phantasos are the sons of Nyx via parthenogenesis or with Erebos. This makes them full brothers to Hypnos, not sons or half-brothers. Hesiod's Theogony is the principle source of the modern understanding of Greek Mythology.

However, according to the Roman author Ovid in his Metamorphoses; Morpheus, Phobetor and Phantasos are just three of a vast multitude of Hypnos' sons. It should be remembered that this genealogy is not common in Hellenistic belief, but a later Roman adoption.

Furthermore, much of this article appears not to hold true to classical accounts:

- There are no texts which mention Morpheus as living in a realm whose gates are guarded by nightmare beasts. Ancient writings instead reference the gates of Horn and Ivory in the Underworld, with false dreams passing through the Ivory gate and prophetic dreams passing through the gate of Horn.

- It is unlikely that Hypnos was not winged like his twin Thanatos, as in pottery he is usually portrayed either with wings on his brow or on his back.

- It's highly unlikely that Iris was Morpheus' wife. Depictions of the two deities together are not implying a relationship, but rather portraying a scene common in myth, where Hera sends her messenger Iris to request the aid of Hypnos or Morpheus, and finds him reclining in repose. Iris is usually described as being married to Zephyros, the west wind.

- Morpheus' family were never banished from Mount Olympus. The children of Night had resided in the underworld since long before the Olympians came to power. And none of the Olympians visit the Underworld, except for Hermes in his roles as Messenger and Psychopomp.

- The river of forgetfulness and the river of oblivion are the same thing; the River Lethe.

Somebody needs to address this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.73.123.35 (talk) 02:59, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Mother

Whereas the main text affirms Morpheus' mother is Pasithea, leaving Nyx the role of grandmother, the sidebox affirms Nyx *is* his mother. Which is correct? I don't know. Anyone? Bruno Unna (talk) 15:59, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Redirects

There's some wikitext [[1]] about the Matrix character, and the character also features in the Sandman series. Actually, the more I hunt for wikilinks, the messier my tab bar gets. A clean-up is in order, or perhaps a more judicious redirect. When I get time (if it's not already been done by then) I will do it. Drjon 00:58, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

No Citation?

"Morpheus is also the name of a musical piece that can be played by a range of instruments, including the clarinet, piano and viola. The piece gives the impressions of nightmares which was obviously inspired by the name of the Greek god of the same name." I removed this as a courtesy, since it seemed to be more like an opinion than a fact of any kind, and was almost unrelated to the article as a whole. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.86.1.61 (talk) 02:27, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

mythology

it's not a wonky oedipus-esque type thing, it's mythology, and there are different versions of any myth. this article is terrible and i'm redoing it.

--Harlequence 04:03, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Greek or Roman

Ovid was a Roman poet. I am not sure that Morpheus was Greek, perhaps a Roman myth?

No, I'm pretty sure Morpheus is a Greek god, Morpheus name implies the greek word Morphe (what means form) And his father Hypnos is a Greek god Hermes13 (talk) 20:33, 6 April 2010 (UTC) Hermes13

The Matrix

How could you guys forget to mention the role of the name Morpheus in The Matrix? Anyhow, could anybody word my addition better? Tomer M (talk) 21:50, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Morpheus in the Matrix is an influential figure in a community that has escaped the dream world of the Matrix. He goes back into this world to try to help free the others caught there. Hope that helps explain a bit.

There really needs to be some kind of reference in the article to Morpheus in The Matrix series. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.254.229.40 (talk) 19:53, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Glen or Glenda

The article criticizes the work for "incorrectly" referring to Morpheus as "God of dreams" yet the very first line in this article reads "Morpheus is the Greek God of dreams." Either the explanation to Glen or Glenda's error needs to be rewritten or this point is flat out wrong. D Boland (talk) 22:21, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm removing the entire line since it also claims that the film was a "masterpiece."Derekbd (talk) 15:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I have to say that this article is written at a weak weak 3rd grade level or so. It's horribly uninformative and poorly worded, poorly punctuated, etc. PLEASE UPDATE AND MAKE THIS A RESPECTABLE ARTICLE, IT'S A FASCINATING SUBJECT! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jakobbattick (talk • contribs) 14:50, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Requested move 8 April 2018

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: consensus to move the pages as requested, per the discussion below. Dekimasuよ! 05:20, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

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• Morpheus (mythology) → Morpheus
• Morpheus → Morpheus (disambiguation)

– Clear primary topic in terms of historical significance. Everything else in the disambiguation, including the Matrix character, etc. were named after the god. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 05:47, 8 April 2018 (UTC)

• Support. The mythology article gets 67 percent of relevant pageviews, much to my surprise. Nine Zulu queens (talk) 09:18, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support per nom. Iazyges Consermonor Opus meum 10:41, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support The Greek god of sleep is obviously the primary topic; all the other articles listed on the page are named after him, and none of them has exceeded him in relevance. --Katolophyromai (talk) 19:26, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support per nom. Macedonian (talk) 09:58, 9 April 2018 (UTC)

---

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Editing / session glitch

@Paul August: My apologies as I inadvertently overwrote 1057845305. I was traveling by ferry & temporarily lost connectivity on my cellular hot spot. I refreshed my browser a couple of times because it was failing to display my changed code. I was then able to get back my changed code before the preview. Doing this must have mucked up the session data, as when I submitted, I did not get an edit conflict that I would normally would see in such situations. Peaceray (talk) 16:51, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

@Peaceray: Not a problem ;-) Paul August ☎ 16:54, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: HUM 202 - Introduction to Mythology

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 17 January 2023 and 12 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Slovakia's finest (article contribs). Peer reviewers: RareTM1.

— Assignment last updated by Rockethound (talk) 21:50, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

Recent new additions

@Slovakia's finest: Thanks for providing these sources, however both the sources and proposed new content are problematic. Let's discuss the three new sentences you've added to the lead:

1. "However, other sources refer to Morpheus as the son of Hypnos and Pasithea. His father, Hypnos, is known as the God of Sleep, whereas his mother, Pasithea, is referred to as the Goddess of Relaxation and Rest."

The earliest mention of a god named Morpheus occurs in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Griffin, p. 249). Griffin goes on to say that "Ovid may have invented the [name Morphesus] or taken [it] from some lost Hellenistic source". So if Morpheus is an Ovidian invention then Greek mythology never had Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, having a son named Morpheus. And even if Ovid took this from some lost source, it seems it would still only have come from a Hellenistic source. The ancient Greeks, did not generally personify dreams (Grimal, s.v. Oneiros, p. 328). However, in the few examples inwhich such personifications do exist, the name used was either Oneiros (Dream) or the Oneiroi (Dreams) (see Oneiros). Certainly Homer does not mention Morpheus, even though he had occasion to in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Saying that Morpheus is the son of Hypnos, relies on the logic that, since Morpheus was, according to Ovid, the son of Somnus (Sleep), and since the Roman Somnus is "equivalent" to the Greek Hypnos, then Morpheus must also have been the son of the Greek god Hypnos. Which might be thought of, in a very loose sense, as true, and so you will find this assertion repeated by people like Goodman, who is an MD, and so not a high quality source on classical mythology. I don't think asserting this parentage for Morpheus is appropriate. Paul August ☎ 15:29, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

2. "He is often credited with the ability to shape dreams and take on any human form in order to appear in someone's dreams, which is reflected by his name, "the fashioner" or "the molder.""

In my edition of Graves (1988), I find no mention of Morpheus on p. 162, nor in the index. Can you tell me what section of Graves work this this mention of Morpheus occurs? Also Graves's book is not particularly reliable, since much of it is highly speculative. In any case, while this might certainly be true, I would like to see some examples of the "often" times Morpheus has been "credited" with this ability, before asserting this in Wikipedia's voice. (As for the meaning of the name, that is already covered, with better sourcing in the lead sentence.) Paul August ☎ 15:46, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

3. Morpheus was also the subject of many art forms, especially during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, when his influence was widespread.

I can find no mention of Morpheus on page 302, nor any mention of Morpheus in art, in Grimal's entry on Morpheus on p. 296. Paul August ☎ 15:51, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

References