Who was the first person to say that "Sleep is the cousin of death"?

Question

Who was the first person to say that "Sleep is the cousin of death"?

Answer 1

i think nas was the first rapper to say it (on illmatic)..but the first person i believe was charles sackville, an old english poet

edit:lol my bad..i thought this was posted in the rap/hip hop section

Answer 2

The kinship of sleep and death is as old as literature, much older than the concept of 'cousin.'  Some examples:

Homer (~700 BC): "–There she met sleep, the brother of death."–Iliad, XIV, l. 231 & XVI, l. 672.

Hesiod (~700 BC): "Sleep, the brother of Death."–The Theogony, l. 756

Catullus (87-~54 BC): "...when our brief light has set, there's the sleep of perpetual night."–Carmina, V., l. 4

Virgil (70-19 BC): "Death's brother, Sleep."–Aeneid, VI?, l. 278

Shakespeare (1564-1616): "To die: to sleep;... to die, to sleep;...sleep of death..."–Hamlet, of course, III, i, l. 60, 64, 66

Fouché, Joseph (1763-1820): "Death is an eternal sleep."–cemetery gate

Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822): "How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother Sleep."–Queen Mab

In Latin and Greek mythology, as the quotations above indicate, Sleep and Death were literal brothers, the twin sons of Nyx [Nox; Night].

Hope this helps.