Thanatos In Ancient Greek Mythology

Michael Gorges
Mrs. Welch
GCLC
March 21, 2017
Thanatos
In Ancient Greek mythology, there lived a demonic representation of death known as Thanatos. The representation of Thanatos appeared in many famous dictations in the past, first and foremost by Homer in various poems. He did not appear as a divinity but was instead seen as the brother of Sleep. In many representations, Thanatos worked with his brother Sleep to carry the body of Sarpedon from the field of battle. He appeared again in a dictation of Alcestis of Euripedes, where he came upon the stage much like Hades in a dark robe and bearing a sacrificial sword. He would then cut the lock off of a dying person and devote it to the lower world in an accurate representation of how death actually works (Theoi Project, p. 1-4). As time drew on, Thanatos would appear by poets as a sad or terrific being and would avoid anything that would be displeasing in nature. Many people perceived Thanatos and death in a more

However, others say that Thanatos was depicted as a positive, loving character in ancient times ( Jesmin, p. 2). Thanatos, over time, appeared as a centerpiece in ancient Greek art, such as on vase paintings in history. He was depicted to be a winged, bearded old man or more rarely as a bearded youth. This showing that the people of these times had many different theories about who he was and what he may have looked like. However, in Roman sculptures, he was portrayed, of course, as the youth with a down-turned torch and a wreath or butterfly that would symbolize the soul of the dead. In ancient Greek times, many believed that sacrifices would take place toward the god Thanatos; however, no scriptures depicting these events would be mentioned anywhere (Theoi Project, p.