Image: BnF MS Gr139 folio 419 verso - detail - Nyx

Description: The goddess Nyx ("Night"; Greek: Νύξ, Núx; Latin: Nox) in a 10th-century Greek manuscript, the Paris Psalter. Here Nyx is labelled and shown nimbate with a dark complexion, with dark clothes and a starry mantle. The full image shows the crossing of the Red Sea in two registers: above, the prophet Moses and the Israelites through the desert with personifications of Night and Desert (labelled: ἔρημος), following the pillar of fire; below, the Red Sea drowns the army of Pharaoh as personifications of the Red Sea (labelled: ἐρυθρὰ θαλαση [sic]) and of the "Depths" (labelled: βυθός) drown Pharaoh himself. The lower scene illustrates the Book of Exodus 15:1–19, especially ch. 4–5: ἅρματα Φαραω καὶ τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ ἔρριψεν εἰς θάλασσαν, ἐπιλέκτους ἀναβάτας τριστάτας κατεπόντισεν ἐν ἐρυθρᾷ θαλάσσῃ. πόντῳ ἐκάλυψεν αὐτούς, κατέδυσαν εἰς βυθὸν ὡσεὶ λίθος.

• The chariots of Pharao and his host he threw into the sea; choice riders, third-ranked officers, he drowned in the Red Sea. With open sea he covered them; they sank into the deep like stone. (NETS)

Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. (KJV) The upper register illustrates the Book of Exodus 13: 21–22: ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἡγεῖτο αὐτῶν, ἡμέρας μὲν ἐν στύλῳ νεφέλης δεῖξαι αὐτοῖς τὴν ὁδόν, τὴν δὲ νύκτα ἐν στύλῳ πυρός· οὐκ ἐξέλιπεν ὁ στῦλος τῆς νεφέλης ἡμέρας καὶ ὁ στῦλος τοῦ πυρὸς νυκτὸς ἐναντίον παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ.

• Now God was leading them, by day a pillar of cloud to show them the way but during the night by a pillar of fire. The pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before all the people.

And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Usage Terms: Public domain