Mors

The Lieutenant of Pluto

### Titles

Roman Personification of Death, Roman Goddess of Death and Agony, Offspring of Nox, God of Death, Reaper of Souls

## Profile

### Race

Second-Generation Primordial Deity, Reaper (Archreaper)

### Occupation

Maintainer of Life and Death, Servant of Pluto

## Relationships

### Siblings

Somnus, Fraus, Dies, the Parcae, Mendacius, Somnia, Charun, Querella, Fatum, Discordia, Senectus, Miseria

## Other

### Status

Alive

**Mors** is the Roman Second-Generation Primordial godesss of Darkness and Agony along with being the Roman Personification of Death.

## Overview

Along with being the Roman variant of Death, she is the offspring of Nox (Night), the personification of the night, and the twin-sibling to Somnus, the personification of sleep. She resided in a portion of the remote cave provided by her brother Somnus beside the river Lethe. Her counterparts are the Greek God Thanatos and the Hindu Goddess Mara.

Mors is unbiased and amoral in terms of whoever she is sent to reap, able to kick her way into the hovels of the poor and the towers of kings equally. She is present at the ending the life of a person after the thread of their life has been cut by the Parcae. He also escorts the dead persons soul, or shade, down to the underworld's gate.

In stories, Mors is shown as a servant to the god Pluto or Dis Pater, ending the life of a person after the thread of their life has been cut by the Parcae, and of Mercury, messenger of the roman gods, escorting the dead person`s soul, or shade, down to the underworld's gate. Letus' antithesis is personified as Vita (Life).

## Appearance

Mors is one of the deities to constantly change gender, more commonly taking a female form. She is usually depicted as a black or dark entity with a pale body and eager teeth.

In plays, she is usually depicted as a young man with black wings on his arms (symbolizing death), with the extinguished and inverted torch in his hand (symbolizing death), accompanied by Somnus. However, Roman art sometimes showed Mors properly as a woman. Ovid depicts her as a hideous and cadaverous figure dressed in a winding sheet and holding a scythe and an hour glass, similar to Death himself.

## Personality

She was said to be similar to her Greek counterpart but is far more sadistic and playful. It should be noted that she was similar to the gentler depiction of Thanatos.

As Letum, she is similar to the older serious depiction of Thanatos though becomes more disciplined, militaristic, and warlike.

## Powers and Abilities

### Weakness

Like her counterpart Thanatos, she is not immune to being tricked or resisted as she has been tricked by many demi-gods and some clever mortals before.

## History

In one story, Hercules fought Mors in order to save his friend's wife. In other stories, Mors is shown as a servant to the god Pluto or Dis Pater, ending the life of a person after the thread of their life has been cut by the Parcae, and of Mercury, messenger of the roman gods, escorting the dead person's soul, or shade, down to the underworld's gate.

When Jesus Christ was crucified by the Romans, Mors visited Jesus at the time of his temporary death where she remained near his feet.

## Myth and Legends

Mors is often connected to Mars, the Roman god of war; Pluto, the god of the underworld; and Orcus, god of death and punisher of perjurers. Her presence in Roman mythology is confirmed, among others in the title of Novell’s atellana “Mortis ac Vitae iudicium” and the satire of Ennius “Mors ac Vita”, as well as in many other poets and through gravestone inscriptions.

The Latin noun for "death", *mors*, genitive *mortis*, is of feminine gender, but surviving ancient Roman art is not known to depict Death as a woman. Poets, however, are bound by the grammatical gender of the word. There are several main types of personifying death in poetry: as the cause of death, as a transition from life to death, as a state/stillness.

Horace writes of pallida Mors, "pale Death," who kicks her way into the hovels of the poor and the towers of kings equally. Seneca, for whom Mors is also pale, describes her "eager teeth." Tibullus pictures Mors as black or dark.

Mors is often represented allegorically in later Western literature and art, particularly during the Middle Ages. Depictions of the Crucifixion of Christ sometimes show Mors standing at the foot of the cross. Mors' antithesis is personified as Vita, "Life."

## Quotes

* *"Life is not the end, and death is just the beginning..."* - Mors.

* *"Death is not the opposite of Life, but a part of it."* - Mors to a Fairy.

* *"Mors is the heartless and cold-blooded Goddess of Death. She rules the empire of death with fear and adjudges the wretched souls. She has the power of death and darkness. She disbeliefs in war but will wipe out anyone that stands in her path."*

* *"[Aeneas is guided by the Sibyl through the Underworld :] On they went dimly, beneath the lonely night amid the gloom, through the empty halls of Dis [Haides] and his phantom realm . . . Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Orcus [Haides], Luctus (Grief) [Penthos] and avenging Curae (Cares) have set their bed; there pale Morbi (Diseases) [Nosoi] dwell, sad Senectus (Old Age) [Geras], and Metus (Fear) [Phobos, and Fames (Hunger) [Limos], temptress to sin, and loathly Egestas (Want) [Aporia], shapes terrible to view; and Letum (Death) [Thanatos] and Labor (Distress) [Ponos]; next, Letum's (Death's) own brother Sopor (Sleep) [Hypnos], and Gaudia (the soul's Guilty Joys), and, on the threshold opposite, the death-dealing Bellum (War) [Polemos], and the Eumenides' [Erinyes', Furies'] iron cells, and maddening Discordia (Strife) [Eris], her snaky locks entwined with bloody ribbons. In the midst an elm, shadowy and vast, spreads her boughs and aged arms, the whome which, men say, false Somnia (Dreams) [Oneiroi] hold, clinging under every leaf."* - Virgil, Aeneid 6. 268 ff (trans. Fairclough).

* *"Fate's implacable decree, and the howl of insatiable Acherontis [Mors-Thanatos, Death]."* - Virgil, Georgics 2. 492 (trans. Fairclough).

* *"Sluggish stands the mere [Akheron (Acheron)] with black abyss, and, when Mors (Death) [Thanatos], pale-visaged with greedy teeth, has brought countless tribes to the world of shades, one ferryman [Kharon (Charon)] transports those many peoples."* - Seneca, Hercules Furens 554 ff (trans. Miller).

* *"O Somnus (Sleep) [Hypno], vanquisher of woes, rest of the soul, the better part of human life, thou winged son of thy mother Astraea [i.e. Nox-Nyx, the Night], sluggish brother of cruel Mors (Death) [Thanatos]."* - Seneca, Hercules Furens 1063 ff.

* *"Funereal gods, murky Chaos and shadowy Dis' [Haides'] dark dwelling-place, the abysses of dismal Mors (Death) [Thanatos], girt by the banks of Tartarus."* - Seneca, Medea 740 ff.
* *"We are perishing, are falling ‘neath the fierce onslaught of fate [i.e. a plague]. Each hour a new train moves on to Mors (Death) [Thanatos]; the long array of a mournful band hastes to the shades; the gloomy procession jams, and for the throng that seeks burial the seven gates spread not wide enough. The grievous wrack of carnage halts and funeral crowds funeral in unbroken line."* - Seneca, Oedipus 124 ff.

* *"[Drought and pestilence ravage the city of Thebes :] They have burst the bars of abysmal Erebus, the throng of sisters with Tartarean torch [the Erinyes], and Phlegethon, changing his own course, has mingled Styx with our Sidonian streams [i.e. to cause fevers]. Dark Mors (Death) [Thanatos], death opens wide his greedy, gaping jaws and unfolds all his wings, and the boatman [Kharon (Charon)] who plies the troubled stream with roomy skiff . . . [is] worn out with ferrying the fresh throng o'er."* - Seneca, Oedipus 160 ff.

* *"[The ghost of Laios (Laius) demands Oidipous (Oedipus) be expelled from Thebes before he will recall the pestilence daimones ravaging the land back to Haides :]
[Laios :] ‘Wherefore speedily expel ye the king from out your borders, in exile drive him to any place so-ever with his baleful step. Let him leave the land; then, blooming with flowers of spring, shall it renew its verdure, the life-giving air shall give pure breath again, and their beauty shall come back to the woods; Letum (Ruin) [Ker] and Lues (Pestilence) [Nosos], Mors (Death) [Thanatos], Labor (Hardship) [Ponos], Tabes (Corruption) [Phthisis] and Dolor (Distress) [Algos], fit company for him, shall all depart together. And he himself with hastening steps shall long to flee our kingdom, but I will set wearisome delays before his feet and hold him back. He shall creep, uncertain of his way, with the staff of age groping out his gloomy way. Rob ye him of the earth; his father will take from him the sky.’"* - Seneca, Oedipus 647 ff (trans. Miller).

* *"All powerful Somnus (Sleep) [Hypnos] . . . now come to my aid with mightier influence, most like thy brother Letum (Death) [Thanatos]."* - Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 8. 67 ff (trans. Mozley).

* *"Pleasant lives droop and fail, Mors (Death) [Thanatos] with his sword cuts through the Sister's [Moirai's, Fates] threads, and hurries the stricken city to the shades."* - Statius, Thebaid 1. 632 ff (trans. Mozley).

* *"Awful realm of insatiable Mors (Death) [Thanatos]."* - Statius, Thebaid 4. 410 ff.

* *"Abodes of Tartarus and awful realm of insatiable Mors (Death) [Thanatos], and thou, most cruel of the brothers [Haides], to whom the Shades are given to serve thee."* - Statius, Thebaid 4. 520 ff.

* *"The void [of Haides] is flung open, the spacious shadows of the hidden region are rent, the groves and black rivers lie clear to view, and Acheron belches forth noisome mud. Smoky Phlegethon rolls down his streams of murky flame, and Styx interfluent sets a barrier to the sundered ghosts. Himself [lord Haides] I behold, all pale upon the throne, with Stygian Eumenides [Erinyes, Furies] ministering to his fell deeds about him, and the remorseless chambers and gloomy couch of Stygian Juno [Persephone]. Black Mors (Death) [Thanatos] sits upon an eminence, and numbers the silent peoples for their lord; yet the greater part of the troop remains. The Gortynian judge [Minos] shakes them in his inexorable urn, demanding the truth with threats, and constrains them to speak out their whole lives' story and at last confess their extorted gains."* - Statius, Thebaid 4. 527 ff.

* *"When Somnus (Sleep) [Hypnos], shrouded in the gloom of his brother Letum (Death) [Thanatos] and dripping with Stygian dew, enfolds the doomed city [of the island of Lemnos], and from his relentless horn pours heavy drowse, and marks out the men. Wives and daughters are awake for murder . . . they fall to their horrid work [murdering their husbands in their sleep]."* - Statius, Thebaid 5. 155 ff.

* *"Fit sentinels hold watch there [the Thracian palace of Mars-Ares]: from the outer gate wild Impetus (Passion) leaps, and blind Nefas (Mishief) and Irae (Angers) flushing red and pallid Metus (Fear) [Deimos], and Insidia (Treachery) lurks with hidden sword, and Discordia (Discord) [Eris] holding a two-edged blade. Minis (Threatenings) innumerable make clamour in the court, sullen Virtus (Valour) stands in the midst, and Furor (Rage) [Lyssa] exultant and armed Mors (Death) [Thanatos] with blood-stained visage are seated there; no blood but that of wars is on the altars, no fire but snatched from burning cities."* - Statius, Thebaid 7. 64 ff.

* *"Mors (Death) [Thanatos] let loose from Stygian darkness exults in the air of heaven, and hovers in flight over the field of battle, and with black jaws gaping wide invites the heroes; nought vulgar doth he choose, but with bloody nail marks as victims those most worthy of life, in the prime of years or valour; and now all the Sister's [the Moirai's] strands are broken for the wretched men, and the Furiae (Furies) [Erinyes] have snatched the threads from the Parcae (Fates) [Moirai]."* - Statius, Thebaid 8. 376 ff.

* *"Within [the halls of Somnus-Hypnos, god of sleep], glowing Mulciber [Hephaistos (Hephaestus)] had carved a thousand likenesses of the god [Somnus-Hypnos]: . . . in the secret places of the palace he lies [depicted] with Mors (Death) [Thanatos] also, but that dread image is seen by none."* - Statius, Thebaid 10. 90 ff.

* *"Lay aside thy fears [for the beloved dead], and be no more in dread of threatening Letum (Death) [Thanatos]."* - Statius, Silvae 2. 1. 183 ff (trans. Mozley).
* *"I [the god Herakles] will hold fast the threads of the Parcae [Moirai, Fates] and stretch out the wool upon their distaffs--I can subdue remorseless Mors (Death) [Thanatos]."* - Statius, Silvae 3. 1. 171 ff.

* *"[Prayer for a father who died at a venerable old age :] The gate of death was not dark for thee: gentle was thy passing . . . a tranquil unconsciousness and death (mors) that counterfeited slumber set free thy soul, and bore thee to Tartarus [Haides] under the false semblance of repose."* - Statius, Silvae 5. 3. 260 ff.

## Gallery

*A Sculpture of Mors**Mors coming for a miser in a painting**Mors on a dragon*
## Trivia

* She became known particularly through Lacedaemonian culture where twin statues of Mors and Somnus were placed side by side.
* She lived in a cave found by her brother, near the Lete River.
* Letus is the Latin word for Death.
* Depictions of the Crucifixion of Christ sometimes shows Mors standing at the foot of the cross.
* Mors literally means "death."
* Letus is where lethal, an English word meaning 'Causing death' came from.
* The French word Mort (the 't' is silent) which means Death is derived from Mors, which also means Death.

## Image Sources

* (Lady Grim Reaper.jpg) Lady Grim Reaper by GENZOMAN
* (Mors Sculpture.jpg) Thanatos marble sculpture from the Temple of Artemis
* (Mors (Death) coming for a miser in a painting by Hieronymus Bosch.jpg) Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch
* (Mors vincit omnia by satanen dal9kgo-fullview.jpg) Mors Vincit Omnia by satanen
* (Morte2.jpg) Morte 2 by Ivan Solyaev