Research Paper On Thanatos

Thanatos the God of Non-Violent Death Thanatos has been made into the stereotypical figure of violent and painful death. In reality, Thanatos is the infamous God of non-violent death. “Thanatos was portrayed as a youngster with an inverted torch in one hand and a wreath or butterfly in the other” (Encyclopedia Mythica). “On a sculpted column in the Temple of Artemis at Ephese (4th century BCE) Thanatos is shown with two large wings and a sword attached to his girdle” (Encyclopedia Mythica). Since Thanatos is the personification of non-violent death, he worked most often with the god of sleep, who just so happened to be his godly twin brother Hypnos. “Violent death was the domain of Thanatos' blood-craving sisters, the Keres, spirits of slaughter and disease” (Greek God of Death). Here’s the family tree in all its
dark, godly glory. "And Nyx (Night) bare hateful Moros (Doom) and black Ker (Violent Death) and Thanatos (Death), and she bare Hypnos (Sleep) and the tribe of Oneiroi (Dreams). And again the goddess murky Nyx, though she lay with none, bare Momos (Blame) and painful Oizys (Misery), and the Hesperides. Also she bare the Moirai (Fates) and the ruthless avenging Keres (Death-Fates). Also deadly Nyx bare Nemesis (Envy) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Apate (Deceit) and Philotes (Friendship) and hateful Geras (Old Age) and hard-hearted Eris (Strife)" (Greek God of Death). When it is someone's time to die, it is Hypnos’s job to draw the (dare I say) “victim” into a deep and dreamless sleep, then with a gentle touch from Thanatos the soul leaves the body and journeys to the Underworld. In the Underworld, the spirit is judged. If they have done any major crimes in life, they will experience eternal torture in the Fields of Punishment. If they had had done nothing, good or bad, in life, they would be left to wander in the Fields of Asphodel for all eternity,in death, wondering who they once were. If they had done great deeds in life, then in death they were granted the door to Elysium, where they could wait for loved ones to join them, there in paradise or even choose to be reborn into a new life. This is more or less what people believed in ancient Greece. “Thanatos plays a prominent role in two myths”(Greek God of Death).
Thanatos and the body of Sarpedon, this is just one of them and the story goes like this. “On the orders of Zeus, Hypnos and Thanatos carried off the body of Sarpedon from the battlefield to the country of the Lycians”(Greek God of Death). “[Hera speaks to Zeus about the approaching death of his son Sarpedon:] ‘But after the soul and the years of his life have left him [Sarpedon], then send Thanatos (Death) to carry him away, and Hypnos (Sleep), who is painless, until they come with him to the countryside of broad Lykia (Lycia) where his brothers and countrymen shall give him due burial with tomb and gravestone”(Greek God of Death). “Then [Apollon] gave him [Sarpedon] into the charge of swift messengers to carry him, of Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), who are twin brothers, and these two presently laid him down within the rich countryside of broad Lykia”(Greek God of Death). “But the highest god [Zeus], mighty with his thunderbolt, sent Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) from snowy Olympos to the fearless fighter Sarpedon [to carry off his body for burial]”(Greek God of
Death).