Thanatos

This article is about the Greek personication of death.

For other uses, see Thanatos (disambiguation).
In Greek mythology, Thanatos /nts/[1] (Greek:
[Ancient Greek: [tnatos]] "Death",[2] from
thnsk to die, be dying[3][4] ) was the daemon
personication of death. He was a minor gure in Greek
mythology, often referred to, but rarely appearing in person.
His name is transliterated in Latin as Thanatus, but his
equivalent in Roman mythology is Mors or Letus/Letum,
and he is sometimes identied erroneously with Orcus Hypnos and Thanatos carrying dead Sarpedon, while Hermes
(Orcus himself had a Greek equivalent in the form of watches. Inscriptions in ancient Greek: HVPNOS-HERMESHorkos, God of the Oath).
S (here written vice versa). Attic red-gured calyxkrater, 515 BC.

In myth and poetry

(Blame), Eris (Strife), Nemesis (Retribution) and even

the Acherousian/Stygian boatman Charon. Thanatos was
The Greek poet Hesiod established in his Theogony that loosely associated with the three Moirai (for Hesiod, also
Thnatos is a son of Nyx (Night) and Erebos (Darkness) daughters of Night), particularly Atropos, who was a godand twin of Hypnos (Sleep).
dess of death in her own right. He is also occasionally
specied as being exclusive to peaceful death, while the
And there the children of dark Night have
bloodthirsty Keres embodied violent death. His duties
their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods.
as a Guide of the Dead were sometimes superseded by
The glowing Sun never looks upon them with
Hermes Psychopompos. Conversely, Thanatos may have
his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven,
originated as a mere aspect of Hermes before later benor as he comes down from heaven. And the
coming distinct from him.
former of them roams peacefully over the earth
Thanatos was regarded as merciless and indiscriminate,
and the seas broad back and is kindly to men;
hated byand hateful towardsmortals and the deathbut the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit
less gods. But in myths which feature him, Thanatos
within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever
could occasionally be outwitted, a feat that the sly King
of men he has once seized he holds fast: and
Sisyphus of Korinth twice accomplished. When it came
he is hateful even to the deathless gods. [5]
time for Sisyphus to die, Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain
Sisyphus up in Tartarus. Sisyphus cheated death by trickHomer also conrmed Hypnos and Thanatos as twin ing Thanatos into his own shackles, thereby prohibiting
brothers in his epic poem, the Iliad, where they were the demise of any mortal while Thanatos was so encharged by Zeus via Apollo with the swift delivery of the chained.
slain hero Sarpedon to his homeland of Lycia.
Eventually Ares, the bloodthirsty god of war, grew frustrated with the battles he incited since neither side sufThen (Apollon) gave him [Sarpedon] into
fered any casualties. He released Thanatos and handed
the charge of swift messengers to carry him, of
his captor over to the god. Sisyphus would evade Death
Hypnos and Thanatos, who are twin brothers,
a second time by convincing Persephone to allow him to
and these two presently laid him down within
return to his wife stating that she never gave him a proper
the rich countryside of broad Lycia. [6]
funeral. This time, Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back
to the Underworld by Hermes when Sisyphus refused to
Counted among Thanatos siblings were other negative accept his death. Sisyphus was sentenced to an eternity
personications such as Geras (Old Age), Oizys (Suf- of frustration in Tartarus where he rolled a boulder up a
fering), Moros (Doom), Apate (Deception), Momus hill and it would roll back down when he got close to the
1

IN PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE

top.
A fragment of Alcaeus, a Greek lyric poet of the 6th century BC, refers to this episode:
King Sisyphos, son of Aiolos, wisest of
men, supposed that he was master of Thanatos;
but despite his cunning he crossed eddying
Akheron twice at fates command. [7]
Sisyphus, son of Aiolos was a more than mortal gure:
for mortals Thanatos usually presents an inexorable fate,
but he was only once successfully overpowered, by the
mythical hero Herakles. Thanatos was consigned to take
the soul of Alkestis, who had oered her life in exchange
for the continued life of her husband, King Admetos of
Pherai. Herakles was an honored guest in the House of
Admetos at the time, and he oered to repay the kings
hospitality by contending with Death itself for Alkestis
life. When Thanatos ascended from Hades to claim
Alkestis, Herakles sprung upon the god and overpowered
him, winning the right to have Alkestis revived. Thanatos
Winged Eros Thanatos, with reversed torch and crossed legs (3rd
ed, cheated of his quarry.
century BC, Stoa of Attalus, Athens)

Euripides, in Alcestis:

Thanatos: Much talk. Talking will win

you nothing. All the same, the woman goes
with me to Hades house. I go to take her now,
and dedicate her with my sword, for all whose
hair is cut in consecration by this blades edge
are devoted to the gods below. [8]

In later eras, as the transition from life to death in Elysium

became a more attractive option, Thanatos came to be
seen as a beautiful Ephebe. He became associated more
with a gentle passing than a woeful demise. Many Roman
sarcophagi depict him as a winged boy, very much akin
to Cupid: Eros with crossed legs and torch reversed became the commonest of all symbols for Death, observes
Arthur Bernard Cook.[10]

In art and sculpture

Thanatos has also been portrayed as a slumbering infant

in the arms of his mother Nyx, or as a youth carrying a
buttery (the ancient Greek word "" can mean soul
or buttery, or life, amongst other things) or a wreath
of poppies (poppies were associated with Hypnos and
Thanatos because of their hypnogogic traits and the eventual death engendered by overexposure to them).

An Orphic Hymn invoked Thanatos:

To Thanatos, Fumigation from Manna.
Hear me, O Death, whose empire unconn'd
extends to mortal tribes of ev'ry kind.
On thee, the portion of our time depends,
whose absence lengthens life, whose presence
ends.
Thy sleep perpetual bursts the vivid folds
by which the soul, attracting body holds :
common to all, of ev'ry sex and age,
for nought escapes thy all-destructive rage.
Not youth itself thy clemency can gain,
vigorous and strong, by thee untimely slain.
In thee the end of natures works is known,
in thee all judgment is absolved alone.
No suppliant arts thy dreadful rage control,
no vows revoke the purpose of thy soul.
O blessed power, regard my ardent prayer,
and human life to age abundant spare.[9]

He is often shown carrying an inverted torch (holding

it upside down in his hands), representing a life extinguished. He is usually described as winged and with a
sword sheathed at his belt. In Euripides' Alcestis (438
BCE), he is depicted dressed in black and carrying a
sword. Thanatos was rarely portrayed in art without his
twin brother Hypnos.

3 In psychology and medicine

According to Sigmund Freud, humans have a life
instinctwhich he named "Eros"and a death drive,
which is commonly called (though not by Freud himself)
Thanatos. This postulated death drive allegedly compels humans to engage in risky and self-destructive acts
that could lead to their own death. Behaviors such as thrill

3
bodily changes that accompany death and the after-death
period.
Thanatophoric dysplasia, so named because of its lethality at birth, is the most common lethal congenital skeletal
dysplasia with an estimated prevalence of one in 6,400
to one in 16,700 births. Its name Thanatophoros, means
death-bearing in Greek.

Depiction of Thanatos by Mexican artist Mauricio Garca Vega

Euthanasia, good death in Greek, is the act or practice of ending the life of an individual who would otherwise experience severe, incurable suering or disability.
It typically involves lethal injection or the suspension of
extraordinary medical treatment. Doctor Jack Kevorkian
named his euthanasia device the Thanatron .

4 See also
Thanatosensitivity

5 References
[1] Thanatos, n.. OED Online. Oxford University Press.
September 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.

Hypnos and Thanatos: Sleep and His Half-Brother Death, by

John William Waterhouse, 1874.

seeking and aggression are viewed as actions which stem

from this Thanatos instinct.
However, some scientists argue that there is little evidence that most people have a specic drive toward selfdestruction. According to them, the behaviors Freud
studied can be explained by simpler, known processes,
such as salience biases (e.g., a person abuses drugs because the promise of immediate pleasure is more compelling than the intellectual knowledge of harm sometime
in the future) and risk calculations (e.g., a person drives
recklessly or plays dangerous sports because the increases
in status and reproductive success outweigh the risk of injury or death).

[2] . Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A

GreekEnglish Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
[3] in Liddell and Scott.
[4] R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill,
2009, p. 533.
[5] Hesiod, Theogony 758 , trans. Evelyn-White, Greek
epic 8th or 7th century BC
[6] Homer, Iliad 16. 681 , trans. Lattimore, Greek epic 8th
century BC
[7] Alcaeus, Fragment 38a, trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek
Lyric I, .
[8] Euripides, Alcestis 19 , trans. Vellacott, Greek tragedy
c. 5th century BC
[9] Orphic Hymn 86 trans. Thomas Taylor, trans. The Hymns
of Orpheus, 1792.

Thanatophobia is the fear of things associated with or [10] Cook, Zeus: A study in ancient religion, 1940:1045., citing Adolf Furtwngler, in Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher,
reminiscent of death and mortality, such as corpses or
Ausfhrliches Lexikon der grieschischen und rmischen
graveyards. It is related to necrophobia, although the latMythologie.
ter term typically refers to a specic fear of dead bodies
rather than a fear of death in general.
Thanatology is the academic and scientic study of death
among human beings. It investigates the circumstances
surrounding a persons death, the grief experienced by the
deceaseds loved ones, and larger social attitudes towards
death such as ritual and memorialization. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study, frequently undertaken by
professionals in nursing, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, social work and veterinary science. It also describes

6 External links
Thanatos at Theoi.com
Thanatos at the Greek Mythology link
Mythography : The Greek God Thanatos in Myth
and Art

6
Stewart, Michael. Thanatos Greek Mythology:
From the Iliad to the Fall of the Last Tyrant
Thanatos at the Internet Movie Database

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

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Thanatos Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanatos?oldid=641198721 Contributors: Youandme, Tucci528, Pit~enwiki, Kaijan, Jahsonic, Liftarn, Tregoweth, TUF-KAT, Andres, Emperorbma, Krithin, Renato Caniatti~enwiki, Wetman, Jerzy, Robbot, ChrisO, Cgranade,
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File:3307_-_Athens_-_Sto_of_Attalus_Museum_-_Eros_-_Photo_by_Giovanni_Dall'Orto,_Nov_9_2009.jpg
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