(fab. hist.), one of the most ancient deities among the heathens, daughter of Chaos. From her union with her brother Erebus, she gave birth to the Day and the Light. She was also the mother of the Parcae, Hesperides, Dreams, of Discord, Death, Momus, Fraud, &c. She is called by some of the poets the mother of all things, of gods as well as of men; and she was worshipped with great solemnity by the ancients. She had a famous statue in Diana's temple at Ephesus. It was usual to offer her a black sheep, as she was the mother of the Furies. The cock was also offered to her, as that bird proclaims the approach of day during the darkness of the night. She is represented as mounted on a chariot, and covered with a veil bespangled with stars. The constellations generally went before her as her constant messengers. Sometimes she is seen holding two children under her arms; one of which is black representing Death, and the other white representing Sleep. Some of the moderns have described her as a woman veiled in mourning, and crowned with poppies, and carried on a chariot drawn by owls and bats.

NOYON is a town in France, situated on the declivity of a hill of an easy descent, on the rivulet Vorfe, which at a quarter of a league's distance falls into the Oise, in the isle of France, in E. Long. 3° N. Lat. 49° 38', about 66 miles north-east of Paris. It is an ancient place, being the Noviodunum Belgorum of the Latins. It is a pretty large city, and is well situated for inland trade, which consists here in wheat and oats, which they send to Paris. They have also manufactories of linen-cloths, lawns, and tanned leather. There are eight parishes in it, two abbeys, and several monasteries of both sexes. It is the see of a bishop suffragan to the metropolitan of Rheims; he has the title of count and peer of France, and his income is said to amount to about 15,000 livres per annum. The principal buildings are the episcopal palace, a cloister where the canons of the cathedral dwell, and the townhouse. The latter is regularly built in a large square, in the middle of which there is a fountain, where the water conveyed to it from a neighbouring mountain runs continually through three conduits, and is received in a large basin built of very hard stone. They have also many other fountains, several market-places, and two public gardens. Noyon is particularly remarkable for the birth of the famous John Calvin, who was born here the 10th of July 1502, and died at Geneva the 27th of May 1564.