All the same, the woman goes with me to Hades’ house. Lastly, he appears in a quarrel between himself and Hercules when he ascended to claim Alkestis’s life. “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.” He appears once again in Sisyphus’s second attempt on cheating death, only for the hero to be dragged to the underworld by Hermes. 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.”

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 there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. In the Theogony, Hesiod develops the deity’s character, expanding on whom he is. “Then (Apollon) gave him 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.” In the Iliad, Homer established Hypnos and Thanatos relationship via the task to deliver Sarpedon to his homeland. He appears a few times in myth and poetry, often accompanied by Hypnos. However, he could be outsmarted, but rage from other gods would bandage the wound. Thanatos & Hypnos siblings included Geras, Eri, Nemeis, Apate, and Charon.īelieved to be a merciless god, Thanatos was often despised by mortals and gods alike due to a constant reminder of mortality. He is the son of Nyx and Erebus, his twin brother is Hypnos.

Unlike his sisters, the Keres, he was known as the god of a ‘peaceful death’. Thanatos is the greek personification of death.

Hypnos thanatos keres