When I was younger, I picked up a book series called the House of Night by the mother daughter duo P.C Cast and Kristin Cast. Since then, I have reread it (or, some of it) multiple times because I truly love it, its characters, and in particular, the goddess that most of the characters worship. It's about teenagers who are Marked to become fledgling vampyres and follows a group of special students (with special elemental affinities) in their journey of becoming full-fledged vampyres and fighting off the evil in their world. This is all important to this assignment because the Goddess of Night, Nyx (otherwise known as Changing Woman, Gaea, Earth Mother, Blessed Virgin Mary, etc) is who chooses and Marks (via a Tracker vampyre) these fledglings and gives particular ones special powers. She holds a very important role in these books and specifically looks over and guides this group of students to aid them in overcoming their cosmic problems without intervening in their free will. Despite her affinity to the night, she is the protector of the Otherworld and Earth from Darkness and is viewed as beautiful, pure, loving, benevolent, and powerful which holds the basis for the vampyres matriarchal society.

For this assignment, seeing as these books are only based in the myth and have been adapted, I chose to do some research on her background. Before getting into that, though, I felt it was important to mention something she does in the books that I find important. In these books, it is her job – no, her responsibility – to protect the realms of the Otherworld and Earth from Darkness. Despite this, she holds that free will is her greatest gift to her children, meaning she normally doesn't interfere in things on Earth and simply guides them in the proper direction to fend Darkness off themselves. Throughout the series, there are parts where Zoey (the main protagonist) wonders if Nyx has given up on her but is reminded of Nyx's love and support by the filigree of tattoos that appear on her skin (normal fledglings receive a mark on the forehead which are filled and tattoos blossom from them after they've Changed. No other fledgling/vampyre in history has had further reaching illustrations). A big reason this is so important is because Zoey is constantly second guessing herself and has her own conflicts in being a teenager and newly marked fledgling with tons of responsibility and no matter what she does, Nyx is always there to back her and often times has done the same things the teenager has. She truly encompasses the title of "mother."

Throughout the series, Nyx makes minimal appearances and yet her vibrant presence is always felt. It is felt in her temples, all over the House of Night, and even in Zoey's grandmother's lavender fields. Despite being the Goddess of Night, she's almost revered based on the night's moon and stars themselves (which she is often portrayed as); captivating, beautiful, light ("Nyx • Facts and Information"). "Homer calls her the subduer of gods and men...Zeus himself stood in awe of her" (William Smith). This shows the power and reach her presence has – much like the blanketing night sky – being one of the first deities in creation. It also shows how you make your own destiny as she is the daughter of K(C)haos ("Nyx," Jan. 2021), but spread kindness and order (in the books) and has never been said to have done anything "more 'evil' than Zeus himself" ("Nyx • Facts and Information"). In the very first book, I believe in her very first appearance, she even says this to Zoey: "But remember, darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good" ("Nyx," 2021).

I really love the connection between myth and the books in the nature that she wasn't very apparent, but she was very important. In myth, she was the embodiment of night; with the help of Erebus (her brother and husband), she would bring "night and darkness to the world" while their daughter brought day ("The Goddess Nyx"). Despite never being the figurehead of a group, she was still "worshipped as a background deity in many of the ones for other gods and goddesses." She's said to be able to "bring sleep or death unto...the human race" which makes sense as with no light, your sleep would not be regulated and crops would not grow. Even Zeus is frightened of her, which is shown in a story where Hera, his wife, tried to plot against him and get Hypnos, Nyx's son, to put him to sleep. Hypnos was not strong enough and ran, being allowed refuge in Nyx's cave; Zeus retreated, too afraid to anger her ("Nyx • Facts and Information").

"Your imperfection is part of your power." This is a quote Nyx says in the books and it sticks out to me for multiple reasons. For one, seen even in our reading, the gods want to be more powerful than the humans and will take away knowledge or keep it away from them in order to accomplish this. In a different turn of events, Nyx tries to show them how powerful they are, including a trait that is said to be specific to human beings: imperfection. Another reason this is important is because many things that Zoey does or thinks that are seen as imperfect or flawed are things Nyx herself has done or still is doing. If you go by the basis that gods are not imperfect, this symbolizes the fact that sometimes the things that we think are wrong are completely normal. If you flip this the other way, it shows that even gods are imperfect and Nyx was perfectly accepting of that and still loved herself for who she was. I believe this shows that she was even more of a god (goddess) than most because she accepted her flaws and simply knew herself and her power whereas most would be arrogant and flaunt their power above others.

Overall, even though there isn't much to find about Nyx, I believe she's highly important in mythology and culture. The night is constantly surrounding us, not to mention what Nyx brought to life. She mothered Charon (the boatman of the river Styx), the gods/goddesses of death, strife, old age, doom, light, day, sleep, and retribution, and created groups of deities such as the Moirai (Fates), the Keres (Hounds of Hades), and the Oneiroi (the gods of dreams) ("Nyx," Jan. 2021 and "The Goddess Nyx"). Also, while some deities (like day/light) were later replaced by others, Nyx always held the position of Goddess of Night ("The Goddess Nyx"). This could be representative of the fact that the Greek's valued the night over day, or simply found it to be more powerful. I truly hope that more people include Nyx in books and other media platforms, because I think she's fascinating.