PLATE LVIII
Hypnos
Hypnos, a beautiful, soft-fleshed, dreamy youth, seems originally to have held in his extended right hand a horn from which to pour sleep on reposing mortals; in his left he probably grasped a poppy-stem with which he cast over them a spell of forgetfulness. His appearance calls to mind the description of Sleep which Ovid puts into the mouth of luno: "Sleep, mildest of all the gods, thou art thyself sweet peace of mind, a soothing balm, an alien to care, and bringest rest and strength to mortals worn and weary with the toils of life" (Metamorphoses, xi. 623-25). A Roman marble copy of a bronze original (apparently of the fourth century b.c.), in the Prado, Madrid (Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmäler griechischer und römischer Sculptur, No. 529). See p. 278.
