Ponos /ˈpoʊˌnɒs/ or Ponus /ˈpoʊnəs/ (Ancient Greek: Πόνος Pónos) is the personification of hardship or toil. According to Hesiod's Theogony, "painful" Ponos was the child of Eris (Strife), with no father.^[1] In Roman mythology, Cicero has a similar god, Labor (Toil) as the son of the Nox (Night) and Erebus (Darkness).^[2]

• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum in Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods. Academics, translated by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library No. 268, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, first published 1933, revised 1951. ISBN 978-0-674-99296-2. Online version at Harvard University Press. Internet Archive.