Thanatos

**Thanatos** is the Daemon and Personification of Death and Mortality venerated by the ancient Greeks.

## Overview

Thanatos did not participate in many events, mainly because it wasn't in his job description to, instead these were done by Hades, the god of the dead and the king of the Underworld.

Thanatos's mother is Nyx, the Protogenai of darkness. He is the older twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and the brother of Moros, god of doom. He is also the uncle of Morpheus, whose father is Hypnos.

Later during the Roman Era, he was treated with far more respect as many realized that death is necessary in the human world.

## Personality

Thanatos can be ruthless and reckless. For this reason, he is hated by gods and mortals alike. Although he is a deadly and dangerous god, he was occasionally outsmarted.

## Powers and Abilities

**Death Deity:** As an archetype a death deity, a god/goddess who represents or is associated with Death, the dead, the dying and aspects of the Underworld being the Absolute Death itself.

**Peace Deity:** Thanatos with this ability either is or can transform into a Peace Deity, a god/goddess who represents or is associated with peace, harmony, serenity and gentleness. Peace Deities are not fairly common in mythology but were important among ancient and current civilizations where they were present.

**Protogenai Physiology:** Thanatos either is or can draw power and abilities connected to the Protogenoi, primordial Deities of Greek mythology.

**Divine Weaponry:** Thanatos is able to create and wield any kind of weapon of divine powers. The weapon can also grant Thanatos special powers of any kind, make them invincible and even reach the same level of power of a deity making it possible for Thanatos to hurt a god.

**Transcendent Ghost Physiology:** Thanatos with this ability either is or can become a ghost of terrifying power. They possess the usual abilities that regular spirits have, but at a level that they cannot hope to reach. Thanatos gains a greater variety of paranormal abilities, can control other ghosts, and rearrange or outright destroy the very concepts of the land of the living and the realm of the dead.

## History

Once, Thanatos was ordered by Hades to claim King Sisyphus's soul and bring him to the Underworld. However, Sisyphus successfully trapped Thanatos and chained him up by tricking him. Ares, enraged that no lives were lost during conflicts, freed Thanatos, who brought Sisyphus to the Underworld as requested.

### Appearance with Jesus

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

## Quotes

*"You've gotten it all wrong. Death is fair and welcomes all, it's life that is not fair, only favor the rich and wealthy while shitting on the poor and needy. But for us, for me, we see everyone as the same, as equals." - Thanatos.*

*"And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into Heaven, nor as he comes down from Heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the Earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods." - Hesiod, Theogony*

*"On they went dimly, beneath the lonely night amid the gloom, through the empty halls of Dis and his phantom realm . . . Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Orcus, Luctus and avenging Curae have set their bed; there pale Morbi dwell, sad Senectus, and Metus, temptress to sin, and loathly Egestas, shapes terrible to view; and Letum and Labor; next, Letum's own brother Sopor, and Gaudia, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-dealing Bellum, and the Eumenides' iron cells, and maddening Discordia, 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 hold, clinging under every leaf." - Virgil, Aeneid 6*

*"Fate's implacable decree, and the howl of insatiable Acherontis." - Virgil, Georgics 2*

*"Sluggish stands the mere with black abyss, and, when Mors, pale-visaged with greedy teeth, has brought countless tribes to the world of shades, one ferryman transports those many peoples." - Seneca, Hercules Furens 554*

*"O Somnus, vanquisher of woes, rest of the soul, the better part of human life, thou winged son of thy mother Astraea, sluggish brother of cruel Mors." - Seneca, Hercules Furens 1063.*

*"Funereal gods, murky Chaos and shadowy Dis' dark dwelling-place, the abysses of dismal Mors, girt by the banks of Tartarus." - Seneca, Medea 740.*

*"We are perishing, are falling ‘neath the fierce onslaught of fate. Each hour a new train moves on to Mors; 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.*

*"They have burst the bars of abysmal Erebus, the throng of sisters with Tartarean torch, and Phlegethon, changing his own course, has mingled Styx with our Sidonian streams. Dark Mors, death opens wide his greedy, gaping jaws and unfolds all his wings, and the boatman who plies the troubled stream with roomy skiff . . . worn out with ferrying the fresh throng o'er." - Seneca, Oedipus 160.*

*"‘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 and Lues, Mors, Labor, Tabes and Dolor, 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, Oeidpus 647.*

*"All powerful Somnus . . . now come to my aid with mightier influence, most like thy brother Letum." - Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 8.*

*"Pleasant lives droop and fail, Mors with his sword cuts through the Sister's threads, and hurries the stricken city to the shades." - Statius, Thebaid 1.*

*"Awful realm of insatiable Mors." - Statius, Thebaid 4.*

*"Abodes of Tartarus and awful realm of insatiable Mors, and thou, most cruel of the brothers, to whom the Shades are given to serve thee." - Statius, Thebaid 4.*

*"The void 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 I behold, all pale upon the throne, with Stygian Eumenides ministering to his fell deeds about him, and the remorseless chambers and gloomy couch of Stygian Juno. Black Mors sits upon an eminence, and numbers the silent peoples for their lord; yet the greater part of the troop remains. The Gortynian judge 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.*

*"When Somnus, shrouded in the gloom of his brother Letum and dripping with Stygian dew, enfolds the doomed city, 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." - Statius, Thebaid 5.*

*"Fit sentinels hold watch there: from the outer gate wild Impetus leaps, and blind Nefas and Irae flushing red and pallid Metus, and Insidia lurks with hidden sword, and Discordia holding a two-edged blade. Minis innumerable make clamour in the court, sullen Virtus stands in the midst, and Furor exultant and armed Mors 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.*

*"Mors 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 strands are broken for the wretched men, and the Furiae have snatched the threads from the Parcae." - Statius, Thebaid 8.*

*"Within, glowing Mulciber had carved a thousand likenesses of the god: . . . in the secret places of the palace he lies with Mors also, but that dread image is seen by none." - Statius, Thebaid 10.*

*"Lay aside thy fears, and be no more in dread of threatening Letum." - Statius, Silvae 2.*

*"I will hold fast the threads of the Parcae and stretch out the wool upon their distaffs--I can subdue remorseless Mors." - Statius, Silvae 3.*

*"The gate of death was not dark for thee: gentle was thy passing . . . a tranquil unconsciousness and death that counterfeited slumber set free thy soul, and bore thee to Tartarus under the false semblance of repose." - Statius, Silvae 5.*