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13 Death

LEFT: 7th century depiction of Odin on a
Vendel helmet plate, found in Uppland

Auraka: A deity of death in Polynesian myth. Literally, "the All-Devouring."

Bulu: The Land of the Death in Fijian cosmology.

Odin: Old Norse (Viking Age) connotations of Odin lie with "poetry, inspiration" as well as with "fury, madness." Odin sacrificed one of his eyes at Mímir's spring in order to gain the wisdom of the ages. Odin gives to worthy poets the mead of inspiration, made by the dwarves, from the vessel Óð-rœrir.

Odin is associated with the concept of the Wild Hunt, a noisy, bellowing movement across the sky, leading a host of slain warriors.

He is also a god of war, appearing throughout Norse myth as the bringer of victory. In the Norse sagas, Odin sometimes acts as the instigator of wars, and is said to have been able to start wars by simply throwing down his javelin Gungnir, and/or sending his valkyries, to influence the battle toward the end that he desires. Valkyries are Odin's beautiful battle maidens that went out to the fields of war to select and collect the worthy men who died in battle to come and sit at Odin's table in Valhalla, feasting and battling until they had to fight in the final battle, Ragnarök. Odin would also appear on the battle-field, sitting upon the leader of the Norse as two ravens on each shoulder, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory), and two wolves on each side.

Odin is also a shape-changer, able to alter his skin and form in any way he liked. He is said to travel Earth as an old man with a staff, one-eyed, grey-bearded, and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, with a blue traveling coat. Odin is said to be a healer, hinting at shamanistic origins, as he is god of magic and prophecy, common practices in cultures in which shamans are prominent.

Parcae: The Parcae are the Roman goddess of fate, similar to the Greek Moirae (Fates). Originally there was only one of them, Parca, a goddess of birth. Her name is derived from parere ("create, give birth") but later it was associated with pars (Greek: moira, "part") and thus analogous with the three Greek Moirae. The three Parcae are also called Tria Fata.

Merau: The Polynesian goddess of death and the nether world.

Samulayo: The Fijian god of war and death in battle.

Todote: The Samoyed (Siberia) god of evil and of death.

Cum Hau: A Mayan god of death.

Guta: A greatly feared Hungarian demon who beats his victims to death.

Hisa-Me: The Hisa-Me are female demons of death in the Japanese underworld.

Letum: A monster which lives in the underworld. The name means 'death'.

Mors: In Roman mythology, Mors is the personification of death and equivalent to the Greek Thanatos. He the son of the goddess of night, Nox, and is the brother of the personification of sleep, Somnus. Mors should not be confused with Mars, the god of war, Pluto, the god of the underworld, or Orcus, god of death and punisher of perjurers.

Mors is also the Latin word for death and is grammatically a feminine gender noun.

In one story, Herculeus (in Greek, Heracles) fought Mors in order to save his friend's wife. In other stories, Mors is shown as a servant to Pluto, ending the life of a person after the thread of their life has been cut by the Fates, and Mercury, the messenger to the gods, escorts the dead persons soul, or shade, down to the underworld's gate.

Morta: The Roman goddess of death. She is one of the Parcae.

Thanatos: The Greek personification of death who dwells in the lower world. In the Iliad, he appears as the brother of Hypnos ("sleep"). Hesiod makes these two spirits the sons of Nyx, but they had no father. In the theater Thanatos was sometimes introduced as a character. His attributes are an inversed torch, wreath, or butterfly.

Nyx: The Greek personification of the night, and its goddess. She is the daughter of Chaos in the Hesiodic Theogony, but also Phanus, a primordial Greek sun god, is mentioned as her father. With her brother Erebus she is the mother of Aether and Hemera. Also of a whole series of abstract forces are attributed to be their children, such as Moros, the Keres, Hypnos, Thanatos, Oizys "distress"), Nemesis, Apate ("deceit"), and the Hesperides. The ferryman of the dead, Charon, is also regarded as her son. Her realm was in the far West beyond the land of Atlas.

Chamer: The Mayan god of death, who was especially worshipped in eastern Guatemala. His consort is Ixtab.

Hafaza: The guardian angels who protect the souls of good Muslims after death against the satans.

Nga : The god of death of the Siberian Yurak people. He organized the world after is was created.

Were : The supreme god of the Luo of Kenya. He controls life and death, and he strikes down wrongdoers with thunderbolts.

Charontes : Etruscan demons of death. The name suggests a connection to the Greek Charon and his Etruscan equivalent Charun.

Charon / Charon : in Greek mythology, is the ferryman of the dead. The souls of the deceased are brought to him by Hermes, and Charon ferries them across the river Acheron. He only accepts the dead which are buried or burned with the proper rites, and if they pay him an obolus (coin) for their passage. For that reason a corpse had always an obolus placed under the tongue. Those who cannot afford the passage, or are not admitted by Charon, are doomed to wander on the banks of the Styx for a hundred years. Living persons who wish to go to the underworld need a golden bough obtained from the Cumaean Sibyl. Charon is the son of Erebus and Nyx. He is depicted as an sulky old man, or as a winged demon carrying a double hammer. He is similar to the Etruscan (Charun).

Acheron : The name of one of the five rivers (occasionally also regarded as a lake) that flows through the realm of Hades. The name means "river of woe", and is often metaphorically used for Hades itself. Here the shades are ferried across by Charon. (Virgil VI, 107).

Hermes : Hermes is the Greek god of riches, trade and good fortune and also the messenger or herald of the gods. He is the son of Zeus and Maia, one of the Pleiades. Hermes was an early fertility deity, and crude phallic images of him, called hermae, where set up at crossroads and in front of houses. Five minutes after he was born, he stole a herd of cows from Apollo. He invented the lyre from a cow's internal fibers. After the Apollo learned what happened, he knew that his half-brother should he one of the pantheon. Hermes was the patron of trickster and thieves because of his actions early in life. He served as messenger for Zeus and as a psychopomp ("conductor of souls") Hermes escorted the souls of the dead to Hades. He is typically portrayed wearing a petasos, a broad-brimmed traveler's hat, and winged sandals called talaria. He also carries the herald's staff (caduceus), intertwined with ribbons or serpents. The great thief Autolycus is his son. His Roman name is Mercury.

Hades : Hades is the lord of the dead and ruler of the netherworld, which is referred to as the domain of Hades or, by transference, as Hades alone. He owns all the wealth in the ground and the people referred to him as the Rich One. They were frightened to say his real name for fear that it would attract his attention. Black sheep were offered to him, and the sacrifice was performed with the face averted. Mortals who enter his world had no hope of returning, and so Hades was characterized as pitiless and inexorable. Hades had abducted Persephone and made her his wife.

Charun : The Etruscan demon of death who torments the souls of the deceased in the underworld. He also guards the entrance to the underworld. He is similar to the Greek Charon. Charun is portrayed with the nose of a vulture, pointed ears and is usually winged. His attribute is the hammer, with which he finished off his victims.

Cizin : A Mayan (Yacatec) god of death. He burns the souls of the dead in the Yucatec underworld Metnal.

Gallu : The Akkadian demons of the underworld. They are responsible for the abduction of the vegetation-god Damuzi (Tammuz) to the realm of death.

Giltine : The Lithuanian goddess of death. As a woman (or a witch) dressed in white she strangles or chokes a sick person.

Grim Reaper : The personification of death as a man or cloaked skeleton holding a scythe.

Karihi : A Maori deity, the elder brother of Tawhaki. Together with their mother Urutonga they avenged their father's death.

Artume (Artumes, Aritimi) : The Etruscan goddess of night and death, but also the personification of growth in nature. She can be compared with the Greek Artemis.

Azrael :in Muslim theology, Azrael is the angel of death. He will be the last to die, but will do so at the second trump of the archangel. The phrase 'the Wings of Azrael' refers to the approach of death; the signs of death coming on the dying.