AITHER (or Aether) was the god of light in Greek mythology. He was the son of Erebus, and Nyx. Aither was the Protogenos (first-born elemental god) of the bright, glowing upper air of heaven - the substance of light. Above him lay the solid dome of the sky-god, Ouranos, and below, the transparent mists of earth-bound air. In the evening mother Nyx drew her veil of darkness between the aither and the aer to bring night to man. In the morning his sister-wife Hemera dispersed these mists, revealing the aither of day. The personification of the pure upper air in which the gods reside, in contrary to the 'aer', the lower air which mortals breathe. He is one of the elements of the cosmos and in the Orphic hymns he is mentioned as the soul of the world from which all life emanates. |