DEATH!

No one like's to think about death right? Well we as humans sure have had an obsession with creating the image and mythology of death throughout the years. And isnt it curious how the image or tale of death seem to replicate even throughout the ages and the continents and the religons of the world, But still has frightening similarities. This has always been a curiosity of mine and i think it would be cool to have a record of all the depictions and tales of death throughout the ages. I have collected some references here for you feel free to add any thing you think will relate.

Thanx


Ankou, Ankou is a personification of death in Breton mythology as well as in Cornish and Norman French folklore 19th century.

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Cronus or Kronos, Cronus was usually depicted with a sickle or scythe, which was also the weapon he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father. In Athens, on the twelfth day of the Attic month of Hekatombaion, a festival called Kronia was held in honor of Cronus to celebrate the harvest, suggesting that, as a result of his association with the virtuous Golden Age, Cronus continued to preside as a patron of harvest. Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn.

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Yama Yami, Yama (Sanskrit: यम) is the lord of death in Hinduism, first recorded in the Vedas. Yama belongs to an early stratum of Indo-Iranian theology. In Vedic tradition Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who died and espied the way to the celestial abodes, thus in virtue of precedence he became the ruler of the departed. In some passages, however, he is already regarded as the god of death. Yama's name can be interpreted to mean "twin", and in some myths he is paired with a twin sister Yamī.



en.wikipedia.org...(Hinduism)



Thanatos He is the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Guess the old saying sleep is the cousin of death comes from further back then we thought haha. In Greek mythology, Thanatos (in Greek, Θάνατος—"Death") was the daemon personification of death. He was a minor figure 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 identified erroneously with Orcus (Orcus himself had a Greek equivalent in the form of Horkos, God of the Oath).

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The Black Death Foul Mists And The Grim Reaper.

They all reported that shortly before the plague hitting their community, hooded strangers with “fearful faces” were seen in the fields. The strangers were swinging what appeared to the villagers to be “hissing scythes” over the fields – the strangers left but foul smelling mists permeated in from the fields – some reported seeing lights / crafts in the sky preceding the arrival of the hooded figures.
Taken from “The Gods of Eden” by William Bramley.

I remember watching ancient aliens on history channel and this was brought up. I couldn't really find any other historical reference other then this if anyone has any more evidence for this please let me know.

Here's a couple I find interesting also:

Ereshkigal, goddess of the Underworld in Sumerian mythology. www.pantheon.org... www.deliriumsrealm.com...

Also, Persephone from Greek mythology, not death personified, but she was made Queen of the Underworld with Hades, her husband. www.pantheon.org... en.wikipedia.org...

Nice thread you started here. I find the topic very interesting.

Something else that's interesting, is that when a soul went to Hades, it had to drink from a river that wiped it's memory (of the former life).

I always thought that supported reincarnation. ^_^

reply to post by Ellie Sagan


wow the story of ereshkigal is a truly beautiful story and has similarities to Christianity. Thank you for adding that you learn something new every day.

And Nergal The consort of Ereshkigal Guess what his attributes where? club and the sickle

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reply to post by heyJude


Have you seen the harry potter films? its funny you say that it reminds me of when dumbledore drank from the river where voldermorts horcrux was hidden.

P.S the story of Persephone was just as great and a beautiful mythical explanation of winter.

Yama

Yama is the much-feared Hindu god of death who lives in his gloomy palace Kalichi situated somewhere in the nether regions or the Hindu Patala. He is the regent of the Southern quarter of the compass. Yama has a number of attendants to assist him in his many tasks. In his palace he keeps a register called the "Book of Destiny" in which each person's span of life is recorded. This is maintained by one of the god's attendants and the servant is predictably as gloomy of countenance as his master. When a person's span of life is over Yama sends some of his more robust attendants up to earth to haul the person down to his palace. Sometimes, when things are not lively enough down in Kalichi, Yama himself ascends riding on his buffalo, his steed of choice, and carrying in one hand a heavy mace to strike down the victim with and in another a noose to drag the hapless person down to his palace. There the dead man or woman's soul is made ready to pass in judgment before Yama, who sits on his throne in a great hall in his terrifying palace. Chitragupta, one of Yama's better-known attendants, reads out of a great book the sum of the soul's virtues and sins. Yama judges the dead person on this basis and he assigns the soul accordingly to either one of his many hells, a mete fate for inveterate sinners, or to the abode of the Pitris (The Pitris are the forefathers and their abode is tantamount to heaven to a Hindu who is reconciled with his or her forefathers in this place. Only a very virtuous person is allowed to enter the abode of the Pitris.).

Yama is depicted as a man with dark green skin, wearing blood-red robes and with coppery eyes staring out of his grisly face. He rides his buffalo when he is traveling and he takes his mace and noose everywhere just in case there is an emergency and someone has to be cut off in the midst of his or her life.

source

reply to post by brizellious


That's one of my favorite stories. I love the fall, when everything dies. Best time of the year imo.

Death is merely a temporary inconveinence.

Some of us are indeed afraid of what death may hold, but it is still one of the only things that is certain, so why not think on how its relevant, or even decode the absolute truth of it? Be prepared to fail in that last part though. We are very fascinated by death, weather by fear, or by curiosity. Fit in the god complex, and you find all the representations of Death, as OP has pointed out.

It is my belief that death, is much like "times up" on the SAT. I feel as though, the earth is a training course for our souls. The molecule D.M.T. suggests this with our sleep, and our general use of it in death and birth. Remember we are vibrational energy within carbon form, and we have a subconscious that is only a subconscious because thats what we've named it.

"A true master of death accepts that he must die and realizes that there are far, far worse things than dying in the living world" ~ Dumbledore

"Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." ~ Luke 17:33

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." ~ 1 Corinthians 15:26

"Love: a force that is at once more wonderful. and more terrible than death” ~ Dumbledore

This pretty much sums up my perception of death.