mythology meme: gods and goddesses: underworld (2/5) - thanatos
T H A N A T O S (or Thanatus) was the god or daimon of non-violent death. His touch was gentle, likened to that of his twin brother Hypnos (Sleep). Violent death was the domain of Thanatos’ blood-craving sisters, the Keres, spirits of slaughter and disease.
Thanatos plays a prominent role in two myths. Once when he was sent to fetch Alkestis to the underworld, he was driven off by Herakles in a fight. Another time he was captured by the criminal Sisyphos who trapped him in a sack so as to avoid death.
In Greek vase painting Thanatos was depicted as a winged, bearded older man, or more rarely as a beardless youth. He often appears in a scene from the Iliad, opposite his brother Hypnos (Sleep) carrying off the body of Sarpedon. In Roman sculptural reliefs he was portrayed as a youth holding a down-turned torch and wreath or butterfly (symbolsing the soul of the dead).
mythos
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