She wove flowers through her hair, put on three brilliant pendants for earrings, and donned a wondrous robe. So she washed herself with ambrosia and anointed herself with oil, made especially for her to make herself impossible for Zeus to resist.

She decided that in order to trick him she needed to make him so enamoured with her that he would fall for the trick. During the war, Hera loathed her brother and husband, Zeus, so she devised a plot to trick him. Hypnos was able to trick him and help the Danaans win the Trojan War. Hypnos and Thanatos carrying the body of Sarpedon from the battlefield of Troy detail from an Attic white-ground lekythos, ca. His wife, Pasithea, was one of the youngest of the Charites and was promised to him by Hera, who is the goddess of marriage and birth. Nyx was a dreadful and powerful goddess, and even Zeus feared to enter her realm. However, sometimes he was the son of Nyx and Erebus, the god of Darkness. Hypnos' mother was Nyx (Νύξ, 'Night'), the goddess of Night, without a father. Hypnos lived next to his twin brother, Thanatos (Θάνατος, 'death') in the Underworld, where the rays of the sun never reach them. He is said to be a calm and gentle god, as he helps humans in need and, due to their sleep, owns half of their lives. According to Homer, he lives on the island Lemnos, which later on has been claimed to be his very own dream-island. No light and no sound would ever enter his grotto. His bed is made of ebony, on the entrance of the cave grow a number of poppies and other soporific plants. According to rumors, Hypnos lived in a big cave, which the river Lethe ('Forgetfulness') comes from and where night and day meet. Both siblings live in the underworld ( Hades).

Hypnos is usually the fatherless son of Nyx ('The Night'), although sometimes Nyx's consort Erebus ('The Darkness') is named as his father. Pausanias wrote that Hypnos was a dearest friend of the Muses. His name is the origin of the word hypnosis.

In Greek mythology, Hypnos ( / ˈ h ɪ p n ɒ s/ Ancient Greek: Ὕπνος means 'sleep') also spelled Hypnus is the personification of sleep the Roman equivalent is known as Somnus.

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