This is consistent with the Greek view of Nyx returning to her home in Tartarus noted in point 1 above. This Nyx would descend upon the top of Tartarus to bring about the The Fall of the world. More than half-way through Persona 3, our heroes in the “Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad” (SEES) realize that their original goal to destroy the twelve major arcana shadows actually was a trap set by Shuji Ikutsuki to set free Nyx, a being who is supposed to bring about the end of the world. However, Zeus greatly feared the anger of Nyx, and chose not to take any action in order to avoid her maternal fury. It was noted by Homer that at one point, Zeus was angry at Hypnos, a minor deity of sleep and a child of Nyx, and was going to smite him.Nyx is known to have been a consort of Erebus (meaning darkness, see below) and also gave birth to many other deities, including Thanatos, the Greek personification of death.In the Theogony we see that within Tartarus–described as a deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked–is where Nyx built her home.Most of these are found in Hesiod’s Theogony, a poem describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, and Homer’s epic, the Iliad.
However, we do know a few things about Nyx that help us understand her role in Persona 3. Compared to some other deities in Greek mythology, she appears sparsely in what texts have survived to contemporary times. In Greek mythology, Nyx is the goddess of the night. Let’s start with Persona 3‘s major antagonist: Nyx. In this post, I’ll be specifically focusing on how the antagonists of Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 relate to these real-world mythologies.
Think Pokemon, except the monsters aren’t made up by Atlus, but are instead representations of real-world mythologies. Each game usually has hundreds of demons, gods, and mythological beings that you can interact with or work with in battle throughout the game. The entire Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) series that Persona branched out of has historically been very heavy on plot related to deities and mythology.
But believe it or not, there’s more for me to write about today, because the series is just that rich in content! Whether it’s the friendships, a deductive process, a specific heart-warming scene, comparing the games, or real-world collectibles, it may seem like I’ve definitely run out of Persona content to analyze. My over 300 hours worth of adventures through Atlus’ recent Persona games (sorry Persona 1 and 2 fans, for now) have clearly given me a lot to think and write about here.