In Ireland was a creature known as a dullahan, whose head would be tucked under his or her arm (dullahans were not one, but an entire species), and the head was said to have large eyes and a smile that could reach the head’s ears. The cart or wagon is piled high with corpses and a stop at a cabin means instant death for those inside. The Ankou drives a deathly wagon or cart with a creaking axle. Usually, the Ankou is the spirit of the last person that died within the community and appears as a tall, haggard figure with a wide hat and long white hair or a skeleton with a revolving head who sees everyone, everywhere. Hypnos and Thanatos carrying dead Sarpedon, while Hermes watches.īreton folklore shows us a spectral figure portending death, the Ankou. They had fangs and talons, and would be dressed in bloody garments. The sisters were portrayed as evil, often feeding on the blood of the body after the soul had been escorted to Hades. They were associated with deaths from battle, disease, accident, and murder. Thanatos’ sisters, the Keres, were the spirits of violent death. It was believed that if the ferryman did not receive some sort of payment, the soul would not be delivered to the underworld and would be left by the riverside for a hundred years. He then hands the dead over to Charon, who mans the boat that carries them over the river Styx, which separates the land of the living from the land of the dead. His job is to escort the dead to the underworld, Hades. He is typically shown with his brother and is represented as being just and gentle. He is the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Death, or Thanatos, is the counterpart of life, death being represented as male, and life as female. He is often portrayed as a bearded and winged man, but has also been portrayed as a young boy. In many mythologies (including Anglo-American), Death is personified in male form, while in others, Death is perceived as female (for instance, Marzanna in Slavic mythology).Īncient Greece found Death to be inevitable, and therefore, he is not represented as purely evil. Other beliefs hold that the Spectre of Death is only a psychopomp, serving to sever the last ties between the soul and the body, and to guide the deceased to the next world, without having any control over when or how the victim dies. In turn, people in some stories try to hold on to life by avoiding Death’s visit, or by fending Death off with bribery or tricks, as in the case of Sisyphus.

In some mythologies, the Grim Reaper actually causes the victim’s death by coming to collect them. Reapers - Thirteen Brothers (Watty Awards Paranormal Story of 2012) by Shim Simplinaĭeath as a personified force has been imagined in many different ways. The popular depiction of Death as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood first arose in 15th century England, while the title “the Grim Reaper” is first attested in 1847.

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