 We all know about the lord of death, but what we all don't know is where the myth comes from and what the grim reaper is. Why does death have to have such a grim face? Well, the ancient Greeks thought about death.
They named death Thanatos. Thanatos was the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and both were portrayed as young, pleasant men. In some illustrations, Thanatos appears with wings and an extinguished flame. His job was to accompany the departed to Hades, the Greek underworld. There, Thanatos would deliver the souls to Charon. In this version death isn't ugly and frightening, but attractive and helpful. The grim reaper’s myth did not just come out of thin air. Actually, the legend of death came from the black death in the 14th century, where the grim reaper was painted holding a crossbow, dart or some other weapon. Why does death wear a black cloak? People wear black to funerals and transport the dead in black hearses. But black is also often the color of evil forces and people think that death is evil. But in Japan black is the color of life, and white is the color for death. Story by Jonah Silvers Sources: https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/grim-reaper.htm https://mysendoff.com/2011/08/origin-of-the-grim-reaper/ Comments are closed.
|
