Web Theoi
Greek Name Transliteration Latin Spelling Translation
Αχλυς Akhlys Achlys Mist-Over-Eyes,
Death-Mist (akhlys)

AKHLYS (or Achlys) was the female spirit (daimon) of the death-mist, the clouding over of the eyes preceding death. She may also have been the goddess of poisons. Akhlys was probably numbered amonst the Keres.


Probably a daughter of NYX, though nowhere stated


ACHLYS (Achlus), 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.

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 264 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"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."



  • Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.