Greek Gods of Death & Their Stories

Hades

Hades is highly regarded as being unswayed by the cries of prayer and mercy of the ancient Greeks, which came with his job as the ruler of the dead. According to Greek mythology, he was the first-born offspring of Cronus and Rhea. Hestia, Demeter, and Hera were his three elder sisters, and Poseidon, his younger brother. All of the children were consumed whole by their father immediately at birth. However, thanks to the clever cunning of his mother, Rhea, Zeus dodged the unfortunate fate of his siblings and was the last child born.

Persephone, the Greek goddess of plant life, was the Queen of Hades. Ancient Greek mythology stated that becoming an underworld goddess was not part of her destiny. However, upon being brought into his realm, her mother’s grief was so severe that summer ceased to exist.

Peresphone

As the wife and partnered ruler with Hades in the Underworld, Persephone is also the Greek patron of farming and vegetation, particularly grain. Regarding the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Thesmophoria festival, she is a prominent figure, widely worshipped throughout Greece, and regularly appears in Greek artwork of all types.

Mythology states that the Underworld God, Hades saw the gorgeous Peresphone gathering flowers in a meadow one day and immediately fell in love with her. He then decided they would live together by taking her away in his chariot to the dark Underworld. Zeus had granted permission to the abduction in some accounts. At the same time, the setting of the incident was traditionally located in Sicily, which is well-regarded for its fertile lands or Asia.

Demeter

Referred to as the “Dark Mother,” Demeter is a Greek goddess who is the mother of Persephone, which the king of the Underworld, Hades, had abducted. As a result of her daughter being taken away by Hades, Demeter’s grief is said to have killed all of Earth’s crops and stopped growing altogether.

Although she returns to Earth, she spends six months every year in the Underworld with Hades for eternity. As a result, the Earth dies from the beginning of autumn through the early months of spring with Demeter’s sorrow.

Furies (Erinyes)

As the deities of revenge and retribution, the three Furies were punishers of men who committed atrocities against the natural order. There were especially ruthless regarding murder, unfilial conduct, wrongdoings towards the deities, and deception. Mortals who’ve been wronged may seek retribution by inflicting the Erinyes curse upon the wrongdoer. The parental curse upon a child was among the most devastating of these afflictions. The bitter irony is that the Erinyes were spawned from such an offense - from Ourano's (Uranus) blood, due to castration at the hands of his son Kronos (Cronus).

Various manifestations of the Erinyes' wrath were created; the most horrendous of these was patricide or matricides being afflicted with torturous insanity. In addition, illness and disease were sometimes inflicted upon killers, and a country safeguarding such an individual may be tormented with widespread death, famine, and pestilence. Hades and Persephone also utilized the Erinyes as minions in the Underworld, and overseers of criminals being tortured within the Dungeons of the Damned.

The three Furie sisters possessed the physical characteristics of appaling-faced women with wings and venomous snakes entwinings their arms and abdomens. In addition, each Erinyes sister kept whips and adorned either the flowing black robes of grievers or tiny skirts and boots of maiden huntresses.

Hermes

Hermes was an Olympian god of a wide variety of domains. These included herds and flocks, adventurers and hospitality, roads and commerce, theft and trickery, heralds and negotiation, linguistics, and writing, athletic competition and gymnasiums, and astronomy/astrology. Hermes also served as Zeuses (King of the Gods) herald and private courier. He was also the guidance of the dead who brought souls through the entrance of the Underworld.

Throughout history, Hermes has had a dual depiction; one was an attractive, muscular, clean-faced youngster or a mature, bearded gentleman wearing boots equipped with wings and a herald’s wand.

Hecate

Hecate served as the dark patron of magic, sorcery, the night, the moon, souls, and necromancy. To Titanes Perses and Asteria, Hecate was the sole child, and it was from her parents that she was granted control over heaven, earth, and the ocean. While wielding flamed torches, Hecate aided Demeter in finding Persephone. Upon the reuniting of mother and daughter, she served as minister to Persephone and ally to Hades.

In Greek vase paintings, Hades was typically depicted as a woman wielding double torches. Like Artemis, Hecate was occasionally adorned in a knee-long maiden’s skirt and hunting boots. She was also commonly characterized in triple form as a patron of crossroads in statuary depictions.

Charon

Famed as the Ferryman of the Dead, Charon served King Hades as a daimon (spirit) within the Underworld. The Guide of the Dead, known as Hermes Psykhopompos, led the shades of the dead down to the Akherousian (Acherusian) shores after obtaining them from the upper world. From here in the Underworld, Charon guided them in his boat along the waters to unite with Hades. The toll for this transportation was one obolus coin stored in a corpse’s mouth upon being laid to rest. Unfortunately, the departed without an appropriate burial had no means to pay the fee and were destined to wander Akheron’s (Acheron) earthly lands as lost ghosts haunting the world.

Early Greek art depicted Charon’s features as a hideous bearded man with a hooked nose dressed in a tunic and cone-shaped hat. He was further portrayed standing in his skiff while wielding a pole and preparing to obtain a shade from Hermes Psykhopompos (Psychopomp).

Atropos

Also known as Aisa in Greek mythology, Atropos was one of the patrons of fate and destiny, also known as the three Moirai. Morta was her Roman counterpart. Of the Three Fates, she is the eldest and regarded as “The Inflexible One.” The cause of death was decided by Atropos herself, who ended mortal lives by severing their threads. Her work was partnered alongside her two sisters, the thread weaver Clotho and Lachesis, who measured the thread’s length.

There is speculation and uncertainty regarding the origins of Atropos and her siblings, although they were occasionally referred to as the daughters of the night. Although at some point in their history, they had a single-minded devotion to death and became the entities who determined the final fates of living souls. As stated by Hesiod’s poem Theogony the three sisters were the offspring of Erebus (Darkness), Nyx (Night), and Thanatos and Hypnos were their siblings. However, in the further text of the same work, Atropos and her sisters are said to have been the children of Zeus and Themis.

Apollo

As one of the Olympian gods in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, he is regarded as the patron of several domains. These include archery, music and performance, truth and prediction, healing and sickness, the Sun and light, verse, and others. He is also the child of Zeus and Leto and the identical sibling of the goddess of the hunt, Artemis.

Apollo is regarded as the most attractive god, the model image of the kouros (clean-faced, muscular youth), and the god with the most significant Greek heritage. The closest associations of Apollo are healing or medicine, either by his own will or through the doing of his child, Asclepius. He was the savior of mortals plagued with epidemics, yet he could also deliver illness and fatal plagues with arrows.

Nyx

As the night's patron, Nyx was amongst the primordial gods who appeared at the dawn of creation. Khaos (Chaos, Air) was the parent of Nyx, and after a union with Erebos (Darkness), Aither (Aether, Light) and Hemera (Day) were created. Nyx produced a spawn of dark spirits in solitude, three of which were the Fates known as Death, Sleep, and Strife and Pain.

As a primordial goddess, Nyx was typically depicted as the essence of the night - a veil of misty darkness spanning across the horizon to block Aither’s radiant heavenly blue light. Hemera (Day) was Nyx’s opposite number, who would scatter the nightly mists at dawn.

In the earliest art depictions, Nyx was characterized as either a winged deity or charioteer, occasionally adorned with a dark, misty aureole.

Keres

According to Greek mythology, the Keres were goddesses and female spirits of death. They were the embodiment of vicious deaths, in which gruesome battlefield killings drew their attention. Although their presence was there with individuals dying, they had no power to kill. Instead, they could feast on the corpse's remains only after patiently waiting for death to come.

Nyx was the mother of the Keres and the siblings of the beings referred to as Moirai, who judged the destinies of souls, and the god of non-violent deaths, Thanatos, is their brother.

Cronus

Regarded as the King of the Titans and served as the deity of time, particularly time that’s regarded as a devastating, all-consuming power. After the castration and overthrowing of his father, Ouranos (Uranus, Sky), Cronus spent the Golden Age ruling the cosmos. However, out of fear of a prophecy that he, in turn, would be overthrown by his son, Cronus consumed all of his offpsring during childbirth.

The youngest and last-born child, Zeus, would then be rescued by Rhea, who would send him into hiding on Crete island, feeding him a stone lined with swaddling clothing. Upon maturing, Zeus coerced Cronus into expelling his swallowed children. He then became the leader of the Olympians in a decade-long war against the Titanes (Titans), driving them to lose into the Tartaros (Tartarus) pit.

Zeus eventually released Cronus and his siblings from their prisons several human generations in the future, and the old Titan became King of the Elysian islands, home of the blessed departed.

Hypnos

As the patron or daemon of sleep, Hypnos called Erebos home - the realm of everlasting darkness where the rising sun’s gate could not reach. He would take to the skies nightly in his mother's train, the night goddess Nyx. Thanatos (Peaceful Death) and Hynos were frequently paired; his siblings or children were the Oneiroi (Dreams).

A youthful man with winged shoulders, or a winged brow, was Hypno's resemblance. In addition, he possessed physical characteristics: an opium horn of sleep induction, a poppy stem, a branch of seeping water from the Lethe river (Forgetfulness), or an upside-down torch. Somnus or Sopor was Hypno's Roman counterparts.

Thanatos

As the deity or personified spirit of death without violence, this god’s touch was delicate, similar to that of his twin brother Hypnos (Sleep). For Thanato’s blood-hungry sisters, the Keres, gruesome death was the domain of these spirits of slaughter and sickness. In the two myths, Thanatos plays a very crucial role. The first occurred when he was tasked to retrieve Alkestis (Alcestis) to bring to the Underworld but was pushed back by Herakles in a conflict. Secondly, the criminal Sisyphos (Sisyphus) held Thanatos captive, then cheated death by locking him away in a sack.

Thanatos was featured as a mature, bearded gentleman with wings or as a clean-faced youth in Greek vase artwork on rare occasions. However, from the Iliad, he regularly appears in a scene in which he carries off Sarpedon's corpse alongside his brother Hypnos (Sleep).

Cerberus

The guardian of the Underworld gates was known as Cerberus, the massive three-headed hound of Hades which prevented the shades of the dead from fleeing. The appearance of Kerberos was depicted as a serpent-tailed dog with three heads, snakes forming its mane, and the claws of a lion. A few individuals claimed he possessed fifty heads, although the snakes forming his mane may have been included in this depiction.

Thanks to the assistance of the deity Persephone, Herakles (Heracles) successfully retrieved Kerberos as one of his twelve workers. A close interpretation of Kerboses's name, "Death-Daemon of the Dark," derived from kêr and erebos, both ancient Greek words.