Meaning of “Son of Nyx” by Hozier

by George Spencer· Published August 23, 2023· Updated August 23, 2023

“Son of Nyx” can be counted as one of the simpler pieces on “Unreal Unearth”, not only because it’s an instrumental, but also due to the fact that it only has three writers. The other two authors, besides Hozier, are Bēkon and Alex Ryan.

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This piece originated from a voice memo sent by the latter, seemingly being inspired by the death of his father, who happened to be named Nick. So the title of the track is meant to point to that fact, i.e. it being the work of the ‘son of Nick’.

But you will notice that more specifically, the name of the song reads “son of Nyx”. Nyx is actually an ancient Greek goddess, one who personifies the night, with darkness being a concept that intrigues Hozier (as illustrated earlier on “Unreal Unearth”).

Meanwhile, according to the singer, her son is recognized as being Charon, the mythical figure who mans the ferry across the river Styx, which transports condemned souls to Hades.

Charon is a character who also appears in Dante’s Inferno – the classical, fictional account of a man’s journey through hell. That piece of literature has remained popular to this day – for instance serving as the inspiration behind “Unreal Unearth”.

Furthermore, Charon, the “son of Nyx”, is a psychopomp. And we see later in the album that there is a song which is subtitled “Psychopomp”.

So what Hozier has done on this track is rather than adding lyrics per se, he imbued it with “the choruses or the hooks from the other songs on the album, distorted or de-tuned”. So this is sorta like a compilation track, in a manner of speaking, an encapsulation of “Unreal Unearth” as a whole. But it is also meant to serve the stated purpose of remembering Alex Ryan’s late dad.

Release Date of “Son of Nyx”

The aforementioned “Unreal Unearth” is Hozier’s third studio album, a project which was released through Columbia Records and Rubyworks Records on 18 August 2023. And this song is the ninth track on its playlist.