Thanatos also had a twin brother, Hypnos, the personification of sleep. Thanatos’ siblings thus included Momos (“Blame”), Eris (“Strife”), and the Moirae (“Fates”), among many others. In the most familiar account, known from Hesiod’s Theogony, Thanatos was one of several children of Nyx born without a father, who collectively represented various dark and evil forces. Thanatos was the son of Nyx, the primordial goddess of the night. Over time, depictions of Thanatos became rarer among the Greeks as well. The Romans generally avoided depicting the personified god of death, presumably due to superstition. Thanatos and Hypnos were also featured on the famous ornamental Cypselus Chest, where the two gods were shown as children sleeping in the arms of their mother Nyx. For instance, there were statues of him and his brother Hypnos in the citadel of Sparta. Thanatos could be found in other visual arts as well. National Museum, Cerveteri / Jaime Ardiles-Arce Public Domain The so-called “Euphronios Krater,” an Attic red-figure calyx-krater signed by Euxitheos (potter) and Euphronios (painter) showing Hypnos (left) and Thanatos (right) carrying away the body of Sarpedon (center bottom) as Hermes (center top) presides But Thanatos was also represented as the escort of other deceased heroes or mortals. One of the most famous of all Athenian vases, the so-called “Euphornios Krater,” depicts this scene. In the beginning, he was usually depicted as a winged young man in the company of his twin brother Hypnos but over time, Thanatos took on a more frightful appearance, with shaggy hair and beard and a hooked nose.Įspecially popular among artists was the scene from the Iliad in which Thanatos and Hypnos were sent by Zeus to carry the body of the hero Sarpedon from the battlefield. He seems to have been especially prominent in Classical Athenian vase painting. Thanatos appeared in ancient art from an early period. Thanatos seems to have been above all a symbolic entity, representing the inexorable approach of death. But his exact purpose and function is unclear, as it was more often the god Hermes who was considered responsible for bringing souls to the Underworld, while Hades was the ruler of the dead. In literature and art, Thanatos was sometimes represented carrying away the deceased or bringing them to the Underworld. Thanatos lived together with his twin brother Hypnos (“Sleep”) beyond the edge of the earth, in the murky Underworld home of their mother Nyx (“Night”). Occasionally, Thanatos was viewed in a more optimistic light, as a gentle liberator and giver of eternal sleep to weary souls. He could not be swayed by gifts or speeches. Įver relentless, Thanatos always claimed his prize in the end. The poet Hesiod described him as havingĪ heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods. A deity without a cult, he was usually met with dread or even hatred. Thanatos was the Greek god or daemon who personified death. Thanatos’ Roman counterpart was called Mors or Letum (Latin words for “death”). Thánatos), appropriately enough, is the Greek word for “death” and is related to verbs such as θνῄσκω ( thnḗ(i)skō), meaning “to die.” It is thought to derive from the Indo-European * dʰ(u)enh₂-, also meaning “to die.”

The name “Thanatos” (Greek Θάνατος, translit.

Hypnos and thanatos fan art