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{{short description|Ancient Greek personification of death}}
{{About|the Greek personification of death}}
{{Distinguish|Thanos}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Thanatos
| image = Column temple Artemis Ephesos BM Sc1206 n3.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Thanatos as a winged and sword-girt youth. Sculptured marble column drum from the [[Temple of Artemis]] at [[Ephesus|Ephesos]], {{circa|lk=no|325–300 BC}}.
| god_of = Personification of Death
| abode = [[Greek Underworld|Underworld]]
| symbol = [[Theta]], [[Poppy]], [[Butterfly]], [[Xiphos|Sword]], [[Torch|Inverted Torch]]
| parents = [[Nyx (mythology)|Nyx]] alone<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:207-239 212].</ref>
| siblings =
| children =
| mount =
| Roman_equivalent =
}}
{{Greek myth (personified)}}
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Thanatos''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|θ|æ|n|ə|t|ɒ|s}};<ref>{{cite web|title=Thanatos, n.|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/200131|website=OED Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=18 November 2014|date=September 2014}}</ref> {{langx|grc|[[wikt:Θάνατος#Ancient Greek|Θᾰ́νᾰτος]]}}, ''Thánatos'', pronounced in {{IPA|grc|tʰánatos|lang|link=yes}} "[[Death]]",<ref>{{LSJ|qa/natos|θάνατος|ref|}}.</ref> from θνῄσκω ''thnēskō'' "(I) die, am dying"<ref>{{LSJ|qnh/{{!}}skw|θνῄσκω|shortref}}.</ref><ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 533.</ref>) was the [[Personifications of death|personification of death]]. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person.
His name is transliterated in [[Latin]] as ''Thanatus'', but his counterpart in [[Roman mythology]] is [[Mors (mythology)|Mors]] or Letum.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=A. S. (Alexander Stuart) |url=https://archive.org/details/manualofmytholog00murr/page/239/mode/1up?q=Mors+Thanatos |title=Manual of mythology. Greek and Roman, Norse, and Old German, Hindoo and Egyptian mythology |date=1895 |publisher=Philadelphia, D. McKay |others=Wellesley College Library |pages=239}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gildenhard |first=Ingo |url=https://archive.org/details/a292bc0f-f026-4759-acd0-da081c2b9f1d/page/n1/mode/1up |title=Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.511-733: Latin Text with Introduction, Commentary, Glossary of Terms, Vocabulary Aid and Study Questions |last2=Zissos |first2=Andrew |date=2016-09-05 |publisher=Open Book Publishers |isbn=978-1-78374-082-6 |pages=150}}</ref>
The [[Greece|Greek]] [[poet]] [[Hesiod]] established in his ''[[Theogony]]'' that Thánatos has no father, but is the son of [[Nyx (mythology)|Nyx]] (Night) and brother of [[Hypnos]] (Sleep).<ref name=Theogony>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' 758 ff, trans. Evelyn-White, Greek epic 8th or 7th century BC</ref>
[[Homer]] earlier described Hypnos and Thanatos as twin brothers in his epic poem, the ''[[Iliad]]'', where they were charged by [[Zeus]] via [[Apollo]] with the swift delivery of the slain hero [[Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)|Sarpedon]] to his homeland of [[Lycia]].
{{blockquote|Then [Apollo] gave him (Sarpedon) into the charge of swift messengers to carry him, of Hypnos and Thanatos, who are twin brothers, and these two presently laid him down within the rich countryside of broad Lycia.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' 16. 681 ff, trans. Lattimore, Greek epic 8th century BC</ref>}}
Counted among Thanatos' siblings were other negative personifications such as [[Geras]] (Old Age), [[Oizys]] (Suffering), [[Moros]] (Doom), [[Apate]] (Deception), [[Momus]] (Blame), [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]] (Strife), and [[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]] (Retribution). Thanatos was loosely associated with the three [[Moirai]] (for Hesiod, also daughters of Night), particularly [[Atropos]], who was a goddess of death in her own right. He is also, at times, specified as being exclusive to a peaceful death, while the bloodthirsty [[Keres (mythology)|Keres]] embodied violent death. His duties as a [[Psychopomp|Guide of the Dead]] were sometimes superseded by [[Hermes]] Psychopompos.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
The god's character is established by [[Hesiod]] in the following passage of the ''Theogony'':
{{blockquote|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 roam 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.<ref name=Theogony />}}
Thanatos was thus regarded as merciless and indiscriminate, hated by – and hateful towards — mortals and gods alike. But in myths which feature him, Thanatos could occasionally be outwitted, a feat that the sly King [[Sisyphus]] of [[Ancient Corinth|Korinth]] twice accomplished. When it came time for Sisyphus to die, Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain Sisyphus up in [[Tartarus]]. Sisyphus cheated death by tricking Thanatos into his own shackles, thereby preventing the demise of any mortal while Thanatos was so enchained.
Eventually [[Ares]], the bloodthirsty god of war, grew frustrated with the battles he incited, since neither side could suffer any casualties. He released Thanatos and handed his captor over to the god. Sisyphus would evade Death a second time by convincing [[Persephone]] to allow him to return to his wife stating that she never gave him a proper funeral. This time, Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to the Underworld by [[Hermes]], where he was sentenced to an eternity of frustration in Tartarus, rolling a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down when he got close to the top.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus. ''Bibliotheca, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=9&highlight=Sisyphus 1.9.3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402232142/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.3&fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=9&highlight=Sisyphus |date=2022-04-02 }}''</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng2:11.13-11.13 |title=Homeros, Odyssey, 11.13 |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |access-date=2014-10-09}}</ref><ref name="Odyssey, xi. 593">''[[Odyssey]]'', xi. 593</ref>
A fragment of [[Alcaeus of Mytilene|Alcaeus]], a Greek lyric poet of the 6th century BC, refers to this episode:
{{blockquote|King Sisyphos, son of [[Aiolos]], wisest of men, supposed that he was master of Thanatos; but despite his cunning he crossed eddying Akheron twice at fate's command.<ref>Alcaeus, Fragment 38a, trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric I, .</ref>}}
[[File:Marble statuette of a naked youth (1st cent. B.C.) at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens on 30 August 2018.jpg|thumb|left|Statuette of a youth with torches, perhaps Thanatos, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens|NAMA]].]]
As the son of [[Aeolus (son of Hellen)|Aeolus]] (and thus a descendant of the Titan [[Prometheus]]), Sisyphus was a more-than-mortal figure: when it came to ordinary humans, Thanatos was usually thought of as inexorable. The sole time he was successfully prevented from claiming a mortal life was by the intervention of the hero [[Heracles]], a son of [[Zeus]]. Thanatos had come to take the soul of [[Alcestis|Alkestis]], who had offered her life in exchange for the continued life of her husband, King [[Admetus|Admetos]] of [[Pherae|Pherai]]. Heracles was an honored guest in the House of Admetos at the time and offered to repay the king's hospitality by contending with Death itself for Alkestis' life. When Thanatos ascended from [[Greek underworld|Hades]] to claim Alkestis, Heracles sprung upon the god and overpowered him, winning the right to have Alkestis remain, while Thanatos fled, cheated of his quarry.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Heracles|url = http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/heracles.html|website = www.timelessmyths.com|access-date = 2015-12-11}}</ref>
[[Euripides]], in ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'':
{{blockquote|Thanatos: Much talk. Talking will win you nothing. All the same, the woman goes with me to Hades' house. I go to take her now and dedicate her with my sword, for all whose hair is cut in consecration by this blade's edge are devoted to the gods below.<ref>Euripides, ''Alcestis'' 19 ff, trans. Vellacott, Greek tragedy c. 5th century BC</ref>}}
== In art==
[[File:Hypnos Thanatos BM Vase D56 full.jpg|thumb|[[Hypnos]] and Thanatos carrying the body of [[Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)|Sarpedon]] from [[Iliad|the battlefield]] of [[Troy]]; detail from an Attic [[white-ground]] [[lekythos]], ca. 440 BC.]]
[[File:3307 - Athens - Stoà of Attalus Museum - Eros - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 9 2009.jpg|thumb|right|237px|Winged ''Eros Thanatos'', with reversed torch and crossed legs (3rd century BC, [[Stoa of Attalus]], Athens)]]
An [[Orphic Hymn]] that invoked Thanatos, here given in late 18th-century translation:
<blockquote><poem>To Death, Fumigation from Manna.
Hear me, O Death, whose empire unconfin'd
extends to mortal tribes of ev'ry kind.
On thee, the portion of our time depends,
whose absence lengthens life, whose presence ends.
Thy sleep perpetual bursts the vivid folds
by which the soul, attracting body holds:
common to all, of ev'ry sex and age,
for nought escapes thy all-destructive rage.
Not youth itself thy clemency can gain,
vigorous and strong, by thee untimely slain.
In thee the end of nature's works is known,
in thee all judgment is absolved alone.
No suppliant arts thy dreadful rage controul,
no vows revoke the purpose of thy soul.
O blessed power, regard my ardent prayer,
and human life to age abundant spare.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Taylor|title=The Hymns of Orpheus: Tr. from the Original Greek: with a Preliminary Dissertation on the Life and Theology of Orpheus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUFFAAAAMAAJ|year=1792|publisher=B. White and Sons|pages=224–228}}</ref></poem></blockquote>
In later eras, as the transition from life to death in [[Elysium]] became a more attractive option, Thanatos came to be seen as a beautiful [[Ephebos|Ephebe]]. He became associated more with a gentle passing than a woeful demise. Many Roman sarcophagi depict him as a winged boy, very much akin to [[Eros (mythology)|Cupid]]: "Eros with crossed legs and torch reversed became the commonest of all symbols for Death", observes [[Arthur Bernard Cook]].<ref>Cook, ''Zeus: A study in ancient religion'', 1940:1045., citing Adolf Furtwängler, in Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, ''Ausführliches Lexikon der grieschischen und römischen Mythologie''.</ref>
Thanatos has also been portrayed as a slumbering infant in the arms of his mother Nyx, or as a youth carrying a [[butterfly]] (the ancient Greek word "ψυχή" can mean soul or butterfly, or life, amongst other things) or a wreath of [[poppy|poppies]] (poppies were associated with Hypnos and Thanatos because of their [[hypnogogic]] traits and the eventual death engendered by overexposure to them).
He is often shown carrying an inverted torch (holding it upside down in his hands), representing a life extinguished. He is usually described as winged and with a sword sheathed at his belt. In [[Euripides]]' ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'' (438 BCE), he is depicted dressed in black and carrying a sword. Thanatos was rarely portrayed in art without his twin brother Hypnos.
Thanatos is also famously shown on the Euphronios Krator where he and his brother Hypnos are shown carrying the body of Sarpedon to his home for burial.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ancientstandard.com/2007/08/30/euphronios-krater-the-continuing-saga-ca-515-bc/|title=Euphronios Krater: The Continuing Saga (ca. 515 BC) – Ancient History Blog|website=ancientstandard.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-09-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Von Bothner|first=Dietrich|date=1987|title=Euphronios and Memnon? Observations on a Red-figures fragment|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/journals/1/pdf/1512832.pdf.bannered.pdf|journal=Metropolitan Museum Journal}}</ref> Here he is pictured as a full-grown and bearded man with wings, as is his brother.
[[File:Hermes e Sarpedon.jpg|thumb|275px|[[Hypnos]] (left) and Thanatos (right) carrying dead [[Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)|Sarpedon]], while [[Hermes]] watches. Inscriptions in [[ancient Greek]] read HVPNOS-HERMES-θΑΝΑΤΟS (here written vice versa). [[Attica|Attic]] [[Red-figure pottery|red-figured]] [[Krater#Calyx krater|calyx]]-[[krater]], 515 BC.]]
== In psychology and medicine ==
[[File:035Tanatos.jpg|thumb|287px|Depiction of Thanatos by Mexican artist [[Mauricio García Vega]]]]
[[File:Waterhouse-sleep and his half-brother death-1874.jpg|thumb|287px|[[Hypnos]] and Thanatos: ''Sleep and His Half-Brother Death'', by [[John William Waterhouse]], 1874.]]
According to [[Sigmund Freud]], humans have a life instinct—which he named "[[Eros (Freud)|Eros]]"—and a death drive, which is commonly called (though not by Freud himself) "Thanatos". This postulated [[death drive]] allegedly compels humans to engage in risky and self-destructive acts that could lead to their own death. Behaviors such as thrill-seeking and aggression are viewed as actions which stem from this Thanatos instinct.
However, some scientists argue that there is little evidence that most people have a specific drive toward self-destruction. According to them, the behaviors Freud studied can be explained by simpler, known processes, such as salience biases (e.g., a person abuses drugs because the promise of immediate pleasure is more compelling than the intellectual knowledge of harm sometime in the future) and risk calculations (e.g., a person drives recklessly or plays dangerous sports because the increases in [[Social status|status]] and [[reproductive success]] outweigh the risk of injury or death).
[[Necrophobia#Thanatophobia|Thanatophobia]] is the fear of things associated with or reminiscent of death and mortality, such as corpses or graveyards. It is related to [[necrophobia]], although the latter term typically refers to a specific fear of dead bodies rather than a fear of death in general.
[[Thanatology]] is the academic and scientific study of death among human beings. It investigates the circumstances surrounding a person's death, the grief experienced by the deceased's loved ones, and larger social attitudes towards death such as ritual and memorialization. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study, frequently undertaken by professionals in nursing, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, social work and veterinary science. It also describes bodily changes that accompany death and the after-death period.
[[Thanatophoric dysplasia]], so named because of its lethality at birth, is the most common lethal congenital skeletal dysplasia with an estimated prevalence of one in 6,400 to one in 16,700 births. Its name ''Thanatophoros'', means "death-bearing" in Greek.
[[Euthanasia]], "good death" in Greek, is the act or practice of ending the life of an individual who would otherwise experience severe, incurable suffering or disability. It typically involves lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment. Doctor [[Jack Kevorkian]] named his [[euthanasia device]] the Thanatron.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/aboutk/thanatronblurb.html |title=PBS.org |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=2017-09-15 |archive-date=2018-07-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728160518/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/aboutk/thanatronblurb.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Death drive]]
* [[Thanatosensitivity]]
* [[Thanatosis]]
* [[Thanatology]]
* [[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse#Pale Horse|Pale Horseman]], one of the [[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]], also named Thanatos
* [[Thanatophobia]]
== Notes ==
{{Reflist|30em}}
== References ==
* [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
== Further reading ==
* [[Robert Garland (historian)|Garland, Robert]], ''The Greek Way of Death'', New York, Cornell University Press, 1985, pp. 56–59. {{ISBN|0801495288}}.
{{Commons category|Thanatos}}
== External links ==
* [https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Thanatos.html THANATOS on The Theoi Project]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20001018120618/http://www.loggia.com/myth/thanatos.html Mythography : The Greek God Thanatos in Myth and Art]
* [https://archive.today/20121206042223/http://messagenet.com/myths/bios/thanatos.html Stewart, Michael. "Thanatos" ''Greek Mythology: From the Iliad to the Fall of the Last Tyrant'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160730123423/http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0229824/ Thanatos] on [[IMDb]]
{{Greek religion}}
{{Greek mythology (deities)|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Chthonic beings]]
[[Category:Greek death gods]]
[[Category:Personifications in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythology of Heracles]]
[[Category:Psychopomps]]
[[Category:Thanatos| ]]
[[Category:Children of Nyx]]
[[Category:Residents of the Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Deities in the Iliad]]
[[Category:Divine twins]]
[[Category:Personifications of death]]
[[Category:Personifications]]
[[Category:Avian humanoids]]
[[Category:Deeds of Ares]]
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