List of death deities

Yama, the Hindu god of death and Lord of Naraka (hell). He subsequently entered Buddhist, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, and Japanese mythology as the king of hell.
Maya death god "A" way as a hunter, Classic period

Deities associated with death take many different forms, depending on the specific culture and religion being referenced. Psychopomps, deities of the underworld, and resurrection deities are commonly called death deities in comparative religions texts. The term colloquially refers to deities that either collect or rule over the dead, rather than those deities who determine the time of death. However, all these types will be included in this article.

Many have incorporated a god of death into their mythology or religion. As death, along with birth, is among the major parts of human life, these deities may often be one of the most important deities of a religion. In some religions with a single powerful deity as the source of worship, the death deity is an antagonistic deity against which the primary deity struggles. The related term death worship has most often been used as a derogatory term to accuse certain groups of morally abhorrent practices which set no value on human life.

Occurrence

In polytheistic religions or mythologies which have a complex system of deities governing various natural phenomena and aspects of human life, it is common to have a deity who is assigned the function of presiding over death. The inclusion of such a "departmental" deity of death in a religion's pantheon is not necessarily the same thing as the glorification of death which is commonly condemned by the use of the term "death-worship" in modern political rhetoric.

In the theology of monotheistic religion, the one god governs both life and death. However, in practice this manifests in different rituals and traditions and varies according to a number of factors including geography, politics, traditions and the influence of other religions.

Babylonian mythology

Ceramic representation of Mictlantecuhtli

Aztec mythology

Celtic mythology

Chinese mythology

Emperor(s) of Youdu (Capital City of the Underworld)

Kings of the Ten Underworld Palaces

The rest only have surnames including Li, Yu, Lu, Bi, Lu and Xue

Four Kings of the Underworld

Ghost Kings of the Five Regions

Ghost Kings of the Five Regions(Ver.2)

Governors of Fengdu

Imperial Censor of Fengdu

Four Generals of the Direct Alter of Fengdu

Eight Generals of the Inner Alter of Fengdu

Eight Generals of the Outer Alter of Fengdu

Ten Masters of the Underworld

(Note: In some versions, Xie Bian and Fanjiu are the He Wuchang and Bai Wuchang)

Four Strongmen of Fengdu

Two Agents of Fengdu

Wardens of the Nine Prison of Fengdu

Administers of the Six Paths of Rebirth of Fengdu

Judges of Fengdu

Korean mythology

Chasa Bonpuri

Cheonjiwang Bonpuri

Jeoseung Chasa - Gods/messenger of death

Jangseung - Korean totem poles

Inca mythology

Japanese mythology

Egyptian mythology

Finnish mythology

Greek mythology

Hades with his dog Cerberus

Norse mythology

Roman mythology

Etruscan mythology

Misc African mythology

Santa Muerte Blanca

Misc American mythology

Hindu mythology

Turco-Mongol mythology

Misc East Asian mythology

Misc European mythology

Misc Pacific Islands mythology

Azrael

Misc Southwest Asia mythology

In fiction

Death is the protagonist in the science fantasy novel On a Pale Horse, book one in a series of 8 books, the "Incarnations of Immortality".

In the novel The Book Thief Death is the narrator of the story.

Death is the name of one of the "The Endless" in the DC Universe.

Death is a recurring character in the Discworld series written by Terry Pratchett. Books featuring Death include Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather and Thief of Time.

In A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin the guild of assassins known as the Faceless Men believe that all death deities are simply different incarnations of the same god, known to them as the Many-Faced God or Him of Many Faces.

In the CW TV show Supernatural, Death makes a crucial appearance. He is portrayed as existing along side God since the beginning of time, and being so ancient he cannot remember when he came into existence, he may even be older than God. In the show he is one, the oldest and most powerful, of the Four Horsemen- Death, Famine, War and Pestilence. He is not portrayed as a villain.

In the manga and anime of the popular hit series Sailor Moon, the tenth and last Sailor Soldier of the Moon Kingdom, Sailor Saturn, is the Sailor Soldier of all silence, destruction, oblivion, nothingness, ruin, and death. Her weapon is the Silent Glaive that is capable of utterly obliterating and destroying entire worlds and planets if used to its maximum potential.

In the Marvel Comics Universe, the personification of death is Mistress Death.

The Transformers mythos feature the character of Mortilus, a Cybertronian deity who represents death and who later betrayed his brethren and was destroyed, leading to the longevity of the Transformer race. A similar character is The Fallen, a member of the Thirteen Primes who is identified as the guardian of Entropy.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The counterpart to these deities of sky, air, water, and earth was the underworld, the realm of the dead, originally seen as ruled by the powerful Goddess Ereshkigal." Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23146-5
  2. ↑ "After consulting his mistress Ereshkigal, the queen of the Nether World, he admits Ishtar" Kramer, "Ishtar in the Nether World According to a New Sumerian Text" Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 1940. Google scholar results as the JSTOR link is unlikely to be universally available.
  3. ↑ http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/gods/lords/undernergal.html
  4. ↑ http://www.azteccalendar.com/god/Mictlantecuhtli.html
  5. ↑ http://www.goddessaday.com/mayan/mictecacihuatl
  6. ↑ http://www.anubis.org/anubis.html
  7. ↑ http://www.anubis.org/osiris.html
  8. ↑ http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/finnish-mythology.php?deity=TUONI
  9. ↑ A page describing Hades.
  10. ↑ http://www.infoplease.com/cig/mythology/hades-takes-wife-persephone.html
  11. ↑ http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Thanatos.html
  12. ↑ http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Makaria.html
  13. ↑ http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Gorgyra.html
  14. 1 2 Kveldulf Gundarsson. (1993, 2005) Our Troth. ISBN 0-9770165-0-1
  15. 1 2 The dwelling one went to after death varied depending on where one died, at the battlefield or not. If not at the battlefield, one would go to Hel (not to be confused with the Christian Hell). Of the slain at the battlefield, some went to Folkvang, the dwelling of Freyja and some went to Valhalla, the dwelling of Odin (see Grímnismál). The ninth hall is Folkvang, where bright Freyja. Decides where the warriors shall sit. Some of the fallen belong to her. And some belong to Odin.
  16. ↑ Mania (mythology)
  17. ↑ Jaimoukha, Amjad M. (2005-03-01). The Chechens: a handbook (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-415-32328-4. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  18. ↑ Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques (1982), "Ahriman", Encyclopaedia Iranica 1, New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 670–673
  19. ↑ Micha F. Lindemans (27 July 1997), "Asto Vidatu", Encyclopedia Mythica
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