God of death

Tibetan representation by Yánluó ( Field Museum of Natural History , Chicago ) .

Some cultures have included a god of the dead or a god of the underworld in their mythology , their religion or their gods . The attribution of a god of the dead depends on the conception of the afterlife of the respective culture, which is why his role can be positive as well as negative.

Differentiations

Rulers of the underworld are not necessarily deities in the strict sense. Sometimes heroes or mythical kings acted as rulers of the underworld and judges of the dead, as was the case with the Greeks Minos and Rhadamanthys . The idea that after death the kings rule over the souls of the deceased subjects was also widespread. For example, after his death Achilles ruled over the Asphodeliengrund and its inhabitants. In addition, there is the rule of the dead exercised by a demon or chief demon, as in Christian mythology, in which Satan is the ruler of hell .

Death gods in different cultures

• In Mesopotamia ( Sumerians , Akkadians ) Nergal and his wife Ereškigal were considered the rulers of the underworld.
• In Egypt the god of the dead was Osiris and the companion of the dead was Anubis .
• In Ugaritic mythology, the god of the dead was called Mot .
• The underworld deities of the Hittites were the originally Hattic Lelwani , who later assumed female gender, and the originally Luwian sun goddess of the earth .
• The Hurrian deity of the underworld was the goddess Allani or Allatu, who was split into two deities in the course of the identification of the Hurrian gods with the Hittite pantheon, Allani (sun goddess of the earth) and Allatu (Lelwani)
• In Greek mythology it was Hades , the personified death was Thanatos , the herald of death Ker and the companion of the dead Hermes .
• In Etruscan mythology , Aita was the god of the underworld and Calu was the god of death.
• In Roman mythology , Dis (sometimes emphasizing his punitive power as Orcus ) was the ruler of the underworld and Mors was death personified
• In Slavic mythology , Veles is the god of death.
• In Norse mythology , Hel ruled over the realm of the dead.
• The Irish Celts called the Lord of Souls Dagda , plus Cromm Cruach , Donn and Tigernmas , the Gauls knew the god of father and death Dis Pater ( Teutates , Taranis ) and the Welsh men of the underworld Arawn .
• The god Hein appears in the German folk tale .
• In Hinduism , the death and judge god Yama is responsible.
• Aztec Mythology : Mictlancihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli.
• In Daoism , Buddhism and Chinese mythology there is the death and judge god Yánluó , who works in Diyu .
• Voodoo : Baron Samedi
• Japanese mythology : Izanami as the mistress of the Yomi underworld

See also

• Psychopompos
• Reaper
• Personification of death

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Homer , Odyssey , 11,484, ff.
2. ↑ Piotr Tararcha: Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia . Wiesbaden 2009, pp. 49, 109, 124.
3. ↑ Piotr Tararcha: Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia . Wiesbaden 2009, p. 124.
4. ↑ Larissa Bonfante , Judith Swaddling: Etruscan Myths . Austin 2006, p. 72.