Who was Oizys in Greek mythology?
In Greek mythology, Oizys was the primordial goddess and personified spirit of misery, woe, anxiety, and suffering. She was a fatherless child of Nyx, the goddess of the night, and the twin sister of Momus, the personification of mockery.[1]
What powers did Oizys have?
Oizys likely had the power to inflict emotional distress, considering she was the personification of misery. Oizys’s powers are otherwise not explored in Greek myth.
Where does Oizys live?
We do not know where Oizys lived. However, she likely resided alongside her mother and other malevolent spirits in Tartarus.
When was Oizys first mentioned in ancient texts?
Oizys was first mentioned in the 8th century, in Hesiod’s Theogony.
Why was Oizys associated with human suffering and grief?
Oizys was associated with human suffering and grief because she was the Greek personification of misery. In ancient Greek, her name quite literally means “misery.”
How did the ancient Greeks perceive and worship Oizys?
As the personification of misery and suffering, Oizys was not worshipped by the ancient Greeks. She did not have a cult following. Despite being a goddess, Oizys is ultimately an abstract concept meant to help the ancient Greeks interpret intense emotional distress.
Table of Contents
Origins and Family of Oizys
Oizys is one of the fatherless children of primordial night, the goddess Nyx. Therefore, Oizys is among the many malevolent daimones (spirits) that were thought to have plagued humankind. She is most closely associated with her nieces, the Algea (pains); her twin brother Moros (impending doom); and her cousin Penthos (grief).
As a child of Nyx, Oizys has a ton of siblings, ranging from gods to personified spirits:
- Aether
- Apate
- Eris
- Geras
- Hemera
- Hypnos
- Ker
- Momus
- Moros
- Nemesis
- Philotes
- Thanatos
- The Keres
- The Moirai*
- The Oneiroi
Greek sources regard Nyx as having parthenogenetically produced her children. Later Roman authors argue that Erebus fathered Nyx’s children, including Oizys.
*Alternative sources cite Zeus and Themis as the parents of the Moirai.
Symbolism and Meaning
Oizys represents woe, anxiety, and suffering as the personified spirit of misery. Who she is and what she represents remains relevant to Greek mythos because, honestly, Greek mythology is far from sunshine and rainbows. People in myth—as in real life—suffer terribly. This fact was something the ancient Greeks were more than aware of.
More significantly, they knew that humanity often experiences silent, internalized pain.[2] Oizys symbolizes the pervasive nature of despair, anxiety, and sorrow. By giving misery a “physical form” as a goddess, the ancient Greeks emphasized that these experiences are as real and impactful as physical pain.
On the other hand, as twins, Oizys and Momus represent a fine line between satire and the misery it could bring—or, alternatively, mockery and the suffering that caused it. While Momus was a vocal, criticizing figure, Oizys caused one to suffer in silence.
Oizys in Ancient Texts and Mythology
Ancient textual references to Oizys are scarce. The most significant is Theogony, which accounts for her birth and her many siblings by Nyx. Later Roman texts that mention Oizys are also genealogical and refer to Oizys by her Latin alternative, “Miseria.”
Roman deviations from the original Greek account of Oizys include the change in her parentage. While she remains a child of Nyx, both Cicero and Pseudo-Hyginus attest that her father is Erebus, the god of darkness.
The scarcity of myths about Oizys largely has to do with how the ancient Greeks perceived her. She wasn’t a goddess to be invoked. She caused suffering and woe where she manifested, which was something that—unsurprisingly—people wanted to avoid.
Oizys and Other Deities of Suffering
Oizys is often compared to—and conflated with—other Greek deities of suffering. This conflation happens most frequently with Nemesis and the Algea because of their similar domains.
It is worth noting that Oizys differs from other deities of suffering due to her influence being more psychological and emotional than physical. She embodies a form of suffering that is intrinsic to the human condition, often unacknowledged or overlooked in myth but undeniably present. Other deities are related to physical suffering, such as Nemesis, who is responsible for inflicting suffering onto oathbreakers.
The Algea, the three daughters of Eris who bring pain and suffering, cover matters of despairing anguish. They are often visible or at least have physical manifestations of their effects on people. Their visibility separates them from Oizys, whose psychological impacts are less immediately obvious.
Oizys’s silent nature ushered in a new era of Greek myth, where the narration shifts to focus on the quiet suffering of characters. These later depictions of figures who endure suffering due to personal or emotional trials marked a shift in how suffering was viewed—not just as divine retribution but as an inherent part of life.
Oizys in Modern Culture
Although Oizys is a lesser-known deity, she has become increasingly popular in modern culture. She is not a widely recognized figure, but her influence can still be observed in different artistic and literary works that explore themes of psychological suffering and emotional despair. While Oizys is rarely depicted explicitly, what she represents has been woven into modern portrayals of pain and hardship.
In contemporary literature, Oizys manifests in characters experiencing profound emotional distress. Great authors like Sylvia Plath, famous for The Colossus and Other Poems and The Bell Jar, and Franz Kafka, who haunted the public with the psychological horror of The Metamorphosis, are some of the most celebrated writers to capture Oizys’s tormented essence.
In a similar manner, Oizys has impacted the public discourse surrounding mental health by inadvertently demonstrating that suffering often happens in silence.
Not all invocations of Oizys are conceptual, however. In the video game Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (2018), Oizys is the eponymous figure in the Forest of Oizys. The forest is a region found in a simulation of the Underworld, where the spirits of those who died by suicide were kept. Although there is no mythical basis for the Forest of Oizys as having existed in the Greek underworld, it was inspired by Dante’s Inferno.[3]
The Everlasting Presence of Oizys
Unlike deities and spirits that may embody physical torment or conflict, Oizys represents the internal, psychological anguish that affects the soul. As the goddess of misery, distress, anxiety, and woe, Oizys’s impact on humankind is unquestioned but seldom acknowledged, much like human internal suffering in general.
Though lesser-known, Oizys’s influence highlights the complex nature of psychological suffering, stressing that it is not just external forces but also internal struggles that shape the human experience. Her presence in the mythological narrative gave the ancient Greeks a means to process and understand complex emotions, something she continues to do to this day.
References
- Evelyn-White, Hugh G., trans. 1914. “Hesiod, Theogony.” Ancient Texts. https://topostext.org/work/4.
- Ahonen, Marke. 2018. “Ancient Philosophers on Mental Illness.” History of Psychiatry 30 (1): 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957154X18803508.
- Fandom. n.d. “Forest of Oizys.” Assassin’s Creed Wiki. Accessed March 7, 2025. https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Forest_of_Oizys.