Saturday, August 29, 2015

Thanatos:Greek God of Death

      To start off my blog, I'd like to start with one of my favorites.  Today I will be talking about the original grim reaper, Death himself--Thanatos.  Contrary to popular belief, Thanatos isn't evil or violent.  In fact, he is often known to the Greeks as the god of peaceful death.  In some versions he's even got a pet butterfly he takes with him to take the souls of the peacefully dead.  If that doesn't spell out peaceful, I don't know what does.
      For obvious reasons, he was hated by both mortals and gods alike, as he was merciless and indiscriminate.  He was so unpopular that the Greeks didn't bother to put him into many myths.  The ones that he was in, he spent captured.  And for what? For doing his job.  That's right folks, a hardworking death god just wants to earn his living and what does he get?  Captured.  By some King named Sisyphus who doesn't want to die and the one and only Heracles (who was tricked to do so).  But don't worry, Thanatos made sure not to be captured ever again.

Roman Counterpart: Mors
Symbols: Theta, Poppy, Butterfly, Sword, Inverted Torch
Home: the Underworld
Parents: Nyx and Erebus
Siblings: Hypnos, Nemesis, Eris, Keres, Oneiroi, and many others

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