ملف:BnF MS Gr139 folio 435 verso - detail - Nyx.jpg

English: The goddess Nyx ("Night"; Greek: Νύξ, Núx; Latin: Nox) in a 10th-century Greek manuscript, the Paris Psalter.

According to 8th-century BC Greek poet Hesiod, Nyx was the daughter of Chaos. Here Nyx is labelled and shown nimbate with a dark complexion, with dark clothes and a starry mantle, and holding an inverted flaming torch.

The full image shows the prophet Isiah flanked by Nyx and the Dawn (labelled "Όρθρος", "Orthros", "daybreak"), depicted as a boy carrying a flaming torch upright. The manus Dei appears to the top. The scene illustrates the Book of Isaiah 26:9:

"ἐκ νυκτὸς ὀρθρίζει τὸ πνεῦμά μου πρὸς σέ, ὁ θεός, διότι φῶς τὰ προστάγματά σου ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς."

"In the night my spirit rises early toward you (possibly eagerly seeks you), O God, because your ordinances are a light upon the earth" (NETS)

NB: modern English translations do not use word the φῶς, "light", which is not in the Hebrew text. e.g.:

• "With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (KJV)

• "My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness." (NIV)

Detail from a Greek manuscript psalter dated c. 940–960 AD, now in the National Library of France: the Paris Psalter. (Parisianus graecus 139, folio 435 verso - detail)