756) he is a son of Night and a brother of Ker and Sleep, and Death and Sleep reside in the lower world. In the Homeric poems Death does not appear as a distinct divinity, though he is described as the brother of Sleep, together with whom he carries the body of Sarpedon from the field of battle to the country of the Lycians. THA′NATOS (Thanatos), Latin Mors, a personification of Death. EREBOS & NYX (Hyginus Preface, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.17) NYX (no father) ( Hesiod Theogony 212, Homer Iliad 14.250, Pausanias 5.18.1, Seneca Hercules Fur. In Roman sculptural reliefs he was portrayed as a youth holding a down-turned torch and wreath or butterfly which symbolised the soul of the dead. He often appears in a scene from the Iliad, opposite his brother Hypnos (Sleep) carrying off the body of Sarpedon. In Greek vase painting Thanatos was depicted as a winged, bearded older man, or more rarely as a beardless youth. Another time he was captured by the criminal Sisyphos (Sisyphus) who trapped him in a sack so as to avoid death. Once when he was sent to fetch Alkestis (Alcestis) to the underworld, he was driven off by Herakles in a fight. Thanatos plays a prominent role in two myths. Violent death was the domain of Thanatos' blood-craving sisters, the Keres, spirits of slaughter and disease. His touch was gentle, likened to that of his twin brother Hypnos (Sleep). THANATOS was the god or personified spirit ( daimon) of non-violent death. Death ( thanatos) Thanatos and the body of Sarpedon, Athenian red-figure lekythos C5th B.C., British Museum
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