Hey everyone,
Welcome to the VERY FIRST installment of Mythology Man- my new channel where I will be exploring branches of mythology from cultures all over the world. I will be covering Greek, Roman, Norse, Chinese, Egyptian- the list goes on, so if Mythology is your thing- then you’ve come to the right place. Hit subscribe, and your mythological fix will be met. In today’s first ever video, we’re going straight to Greece- as we’re going to be discussing the Greek god of death.
Now, if you’ve seen any of the Avengers movies- then you’ve probably heard of the main bad guy: Thanos.
“Thanos was a genocidal warlord from Titan, whose own main objective was to bring stability to the universe, as he believed its massive population would inevitably use up the universe's entire supply of resources.”
But what you probably didn’t know, was that the concept of Thanos was actually based on the Greek God of Death - Thanatos. Some liberties were taken with his name- but the general concept of Thanos WAS based on this greek god. It all started when Jim Starlin of Marvel first became familiar with the concept of Thanatos in college:
“While attending a psychology class in junior college in order to woo a woman, Starlin had become briefly acquainted with the Freudian concept of Thanatos, humanity’s drive for death and self-destruction. As a result, even before he started at Marvel, he’d drawn up plans for a villain named Thanos, using that subtracted spelling “because it ‘looked’ better in print.”
The Freudian concept of Thanatos that Starlin was taught was of course based on the Greek Myth.
So, who was Thanatos exactly?
First things first- let me just say that Thanatos appears quite infrequently in Greek myth. He was often referred to, but rarely mentioned. Thanatos is primarily associated with death, but what many don’t know is that he was actually the personification for peaceful death- which is an important distinction to make given that there ARE gods associated with more violent deaths. Thanatos’s mother was Nyx- the primordial Goddess of the Night, darkness and shadows, and his father was Erebus - the Protogenos of darkness. Interestingly enough, the parents of Thanatos were actually related- brother and sister. Thanatos himself is the twin brother of Hypnos- the God of sleep, and within Greek Mythology the two are rarely apart. Nyx- the mother of Thanatos- had many children- some with Erebus and others independently. This meant that Thanatos had a number of brothers and sisters, including Moros- the personification of impending doom, Aether- the personification of light, Nemesis- the personification of retribution, Epiphron - the personification of prudence, Hemera, and Charon - who is known as the ferryman of the underworld and the river Styx.
Thanatos is often/usually portrayed as a bearded,winged man - however he is occasionally shown as a winged youth with flowers. According to my sources- he actually only appears in two myths.
In the first myth he comes to collect the soul of King Sisyphus but ends up being captured before being released by Ares, this of course varies, for in some accounts, he is released by Hades.
And in the second myth Thanatos tries to take the soul of Queen Alcestis, However- Heracles, who owed her and her husband a debt of gratitude, ended up wrestling Thanatos in return for their kindness.
Despite being the god of ‘peaceful death’ Thanatos was still believed to have been merciless and indiscriminate, resulting in hatred directed at him from both mortals and gods. He actually reminds me of Thanos a lot- as though Thanos did wipe out a lot of beings with the ‘snap’- it was technically quite a peaceful way of removing them from the universe.
The myth of Thanatos also had a profound influence on language, as many terms that we use today are based off of him.
Thanatophobia is the fear of things associated with or reminiscent of death and mortality, such as corpses or graveyards.
And Thanatology is the academic and scientific study of death among human beings.
And that concludes the channel’s first video. As the channel is brand new, I implore you all to leave your feedback so that I know how to move forward. Also, be sure to leave your video requests down below.
Until next time
"Life and death, one and the same."
