Mors (mythology)
Mors (Latin, feminine, "death", genitive Mortis ) was the Roman personification of death . In contrast to the three other death deities Orcus , February and Libitina, Mors personified the occurrence of death itself.
Since there are no known pictures of Mors, no temples or sacrifices built in her honor, she is often no longer counted as a deity in the Roman pantheon . The few details about the personification of death come from poems in which she hovers pale, gaunt, treacherous and angry like a bird of prey over her victims until the hour when she strikes relentlessly: Mors certa, hora incerta - “death is certain, (his) hour uncertain ”. She appears clad in black with dark wings and pulls people out of their way of life as she likes. In some points it was modeled on the Greek Thanatos .
The earliest mentions of the Mors can be found in the title of a Fabula Atellana and a satire by Ennius .
literature
- Heike Kunz: Mors. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 .