GRGR(21): Thanatz

[Paul Mackin]

David Morris wrote:

> from:
> http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/t/thanatos.html
>
> The Greek personification of death who dwells in the lower world. In the
> Iliad he appears as the twin brother of Hypnos ("sleep"). Both brothers had
> little to no meaning in the cults. Hesiod makes these two spirits the sons
> of Nyx, but mentions no father.
> Thanatos was portrayed as a youngster with a inversed torch in one hand and
> a wreath or butterfly in the other. He appears, with Hypnos, several times
> on Attican funerary vases, so-called lekythen. On a sculpted column in the
> Temple of Artemis at Ephese (4th century BCE) Thanatos is shown with two
> large wings and a sword attached to his girdle.
>
> from:
> http://hsa.brown.edu/~maicar/Thanatos.html
>
> "I win greater honor when the victims are young." [Thanatos to Apollo.
> Euripides, Alcestis 55]
>
> Thanatos, in bringing death, is often followed by the fates of death or
> Keres, who are called hounds of Hades, and are Death-spirits, devourers of
> life. Thanatos is subject to the MOERAE, who are the three sisters who
> decide on human fate, and as everybody has a portion in life or a lot, the
> individual fate (moira) is usually present when Thanatos comes to fetch a
> mortal.
>

Also the word thanatos is often used as a substitute for what Freud
hypothsized to be the "death instinct" in Beyond the  Pleasure Principle. Eros
and Thanatos sound better together than Eros and Death Instinct.

                                                                    P.