Achlys/Acli (Dea della notte eterna o nebbia della morte, personificazione della tristezza e della miseria)

Achlys

 Acli

Acli (in greco antico: Ἀχλύς, Achlýs, "Nebbia" o "Tenebra") è la divinità dei veleni e personificazione della tristezza, disperazione e lamento nella mitologia greca; secondo alcune cosmogonie antiche era la notte eterna che esisteva prima ancora del Caos.
In Esiodo compare come personificazione della miseria e della tristezza. Ne Lo scudo di Eracle viene così descritta:

(GRC) « πὰρ δ᾽ Ἀχλὺς εἱστήκει ἐπισμυγερή τε καὶ αἰνή, χλωρὴ ἀυσταλέη λιμῷ καταπεπτηυῖα, γουνοπαχής, μακροὶ δ᾽ ὄνυχες χείρεσσιν ὑπῆσαν. τῆς ἐκ μὲν ῥινῶν μύξαι ῥέον, ἐκ δὲ παρειῶν αἷμ᾽ ἀπελείβετ᾽ ἔραζ᾽: ἣ δ᾽ ἄπλητον σεσαρυῖα εἱστήκει, πολλὴ δὲ κόνις κατενήνοθεν ὤμους, δάκρυσι μυδαλέη. »	(IT) « E presso a loro stava la querula Ambascia odïosa, pallida, magra, cascante di fame, e gambe stecchite, e l’unghie lunghe lunghe sporgean dalle dita: colava dalle narici moccio, cadevano giú dalle guance stille di sangue; ed essa, con grande stridore di denti, stava, e sugli òmeri suoi si addensava la polvere fitta, molle di pianto. »
(Lo scudo di Eracle, vv. 264-270; traduzione di Ettore Romagnoli, 1929)

（Ἀχλύς), according to some ancient cosmogonies, the eternal night, and the first created being which existed even before Chaos. According to Hesiod, she was the personification of misery and sadness, and as such she was represented on the shield of Heracles (Scut. Herc. 264, &c.): pale, emaciated, and weeping, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust.

In Greek mythology, Achlys^{[pronunciation?]} (Greek language: Ἀχλύς "mist") according to some ancient cosmogonies, the eternal Night before Chaos, also mist of death.
According to Hesiod, Achlys was the personification of misery and sadness, and as such she was represented on the shield of Heracles: pale, emaciated, and weeping, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust. She may also have been the goddess of deadly poisons.
If Achlys was a daughter of Nyx (Night) then she may have been numbered amongst the Keres.

Mythology

Hesiod's Account

Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 264 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic 8th or 7th century BC):

And beside them [the Keres (Deaths) and the Moirai (Fates) on the battlefield] was standing Akhlys (Achlys), dismal and dejected, green and pale, dirty-dry, fallen in on herself with hunger, knee-swollen, and the nails were grown long on her hands, and from her nostrils the drip kept running, and off her cheeks the blood dribbled to the ground, and she stood there, grinning forever, and the dust that had gathered and lay in heaps on her shoulders was muddy with tears.

Nonnus' Account

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 143 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic 5th century AD):

(Hera spies the nurses of the infant god Dionysos): Hera, who turns her all-seeing eye to every place, saw from on high the everchanging shape of Lyaeus [Dionysos], and knew all. Then she was angry with the guardians of Bromios. She procured from Thessalian Akhlys (Achlys, Death-Mist) treacherous flowers of the field, and shed a sleep of enchantment over their heads; she distilled poisoned drugs over their hair, she smeared a subtle magical ointment over their faces ,and changed their earlier human shape. Then they took the form of a creature with long ears, and a horse's tail sticking out straight from the loins and flogging the flanks of its shaggy-crested owner; from the temples cow's horns sprouted out, their eyes widened under the horned forehead, the hair ran across their heads in tuft, long white teeth grew out of their jaws, a strange kind of mane grew of itself, covering their necks with rough hair, and ran down from the loins to feet underneath.

Achlys, the mist of Death

ACHLYS: Goddess of Misery

magical potion

Acli (Dea della notte eterna o nebbia della morte, personificazione della tristezza e della miseria)

A C H L Y S Primordial god of the clouding of eyes after death, the eternal night, and poison

Close up of Achlys

Acli satura l’atmosfera, non possiamo fare altro che respirare la fitta nebbia dove ogni particella contiene la memoria delle persone brutalmente uccise.

...a suivre..