Oizys – Greek Word for the Concept of Misery and Suffering

 

 

In ancient Greek, “oizys” (όιζυς) means all that is wretched and is synonymous with distress and misery.

In Greek mythology it was the name of the little-known Oizys, a minor goddess or more accurately the personification of anxiety, grief, depression, pain and distress.

Her Roman name “Miseria” is where the modern term “misery” comes from.

 

Oizys – Personification of Depression and Distress

 

 

Little is known about Oizys, which only adds to the mystery surrounding her.

Legend has it she was believed to have evil intentions towards all and sundry and despite her general sense of misery and foreboding, nothing made her happier than to see others suffer.

If you take a look at her background it’s no surprise she was the epitome of doom and gloom.

 

Bad Relations

 

 

According to the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, in his works “Theogony”, Oizys was the daughter of Nyx, goddess and personification of the night and daughter of chaos.

Nyx apparently managed to impregnate herself all alone, without the aid of a man and produced twins; Oizys and her brother, Momus, the personification of doom, the force that steers mortals toward their predetermined end.

(However, the roman authors, Cicero and Hyginus, thought differently and claim the father of the twins was Erebus, a primordial god; the personification of darkness).

Other miserable siblings of the twins were the Moirai, or the Fates, Thanatos, the spirit of death, the Keres, the goddesses who personified violent death.

There were also a handful of other not so nice sisters including Philotes, personifying affection, friendship and intercourse, Nemeisis,(also known as Envy) the personification of indignation, Eris, personification of strife and Apate, personification of deceit.

What a dysfunctional family, it almost makes you feel sorry for poor old Oizys, no wonder she turned out as she did!

 

A Word to be Experienced Rather Than Translated

 

 

The word Oizys characterizes a world of pain and persecution.

In his works “Theogony”, the ancient Greek poet, Hesiod, mentions the terrible twins, Oizys and Moros:

“And Night bare hateful

Doom (Moros) and black Fate (Ker), and Death (Thanatos) and Sleep (Hypnos) she

bare, and she bare the tribe of Dreams: all these did dark Night bear, albeit

mated unto none. Next bare she Blame (Momos), and painful Woe (Oizys), and the

Hesperides… “

Hesiod – Theogony  211

In “Works and Days” Hesiod, mentions the catastrophic effects of injustice, saying they lead the city to “όιζυς” (Oizys).

 In Homer’s Iliad “oizys” is depicted as a description of extreme sorrow and unbearable pain and the inhumanity of war.

In the Odyssey homer again uses the word “oizys”:

 “όιζυος εξαναλών πολύνι αυτώ θυμόν ανάγκη.” – “After he was exhausted by much grief, by the force of necessity”

Odyssey, 5.398

Here Odysseus is exhausted physically and mentally and has lost the will to carry on.

 

“The Black Dog” of Greek Words

 

 

 “Oizys” truly does seem to be the “Black Dog” of Greek words, that wonderful expression used in many countries for centuries to describe the darkness, the depth, the ferocity of depression.

Winston Churchill famously wrote in his diaries about having the “black dog of depression” on his back, or following him around.

The Greeks use the phrase often, in fact, they have their very own “Black Dog”; Cerberus, the three – headed dog, often referred to as the hound of Hades that guards the gates of the underworld to prevent the dead from leaving!