Thanatos: Greek God of Death

The Story of Thanatos

Thanatos was the god of death, a son of Nyx, the night, and the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. He stood for peaceful death, while violent death belonged to his sisters, the Keres. Hesiod describes him as having a heart of iron, hated even by the gods.

Thanatos came quietly to carry away the souls of the dying. Artists often showed him as a winged man, sometimes holding an upside down torch. On vases, he and Hypnos appear together, gently lifting the bodies of the fallen.

Several clever mortals tried to cheat him. When Thanatos came for the crafty king Sisyphus, the king tricked him and bound him in chains. While Death was held captive, no one on earth could die, until Ares freed Thanatos and handed Sisyphus over to him.

Thanatos also lost a wrestling match to Heracles. King Admetus was allowed to escape death if someone died in his place, and only his loving wife Alcestis volunteered. Heracles waited at her tomb, wrestled Thanatos when he came for her, and brought Alcestis back to her husband.

After the Lycian hero Sarpedon fell at Troy, Zeus sent Thanatos and Hypnos to carry the body home, and the twin gods bore him gently to Lycia. Thanatos had almost no worship, since death could not be bargained with. His name lives on in words like euthanasia and thanatology, the study of death.