Skip to main content

What is the origin of the concept of "reaping" souls?


A concept related to death is the idea that souls are "reaped" using a scythe by an entity like the Grim Reaper as though they were farm crops. Where did this concept come from, and what is the underlying basis of this concept?



Answer



One of the earliest incarnations for death was Thanatos from Greek mythology (Brother to Hypnos), and during that time they were portrayed as young men, and death was not the "frightening" imagery that is seen today.



If you look at the art of the era, the Black Plague (1340ish to 1350) changed the depictions. Death was no longer something that happened, but because of the depredation and the impact, death and disease were now something to be feared. As the plague progressed, the art changed to reflect the public perception.


Death was shown with a few different types of weapons during this time, eventually settling on the scythe, and there are some paintings that depict death literally "mowing" down people with the scythe. In the book of Revelations in the Bible, death is the only one really described, and the only one pictured with a weapon.


Note: This is almost purely from the Christian/Catholic perspective. There are many other interpretations. For example, in Irish Celtic mythology, death was known as the dullahan, which was a race of creatures that carried their head under their arm and drove carts around collecting people. Almost every religion has their own interpretation, but because of the invasive nature of Catholicism (especially during the Crusades), it is one of the more prevailing images.


As requested:


Thanatos in marble - As you can see, very human in appearance, with wings and a sword. Typifies the view that death was a natural progression and nothing to be feared. The second image is that of Thanatos as a friend leading the deceased away


Image of Thanatos done in marble Thanatos leading people away


After the plague erupted, you can see the image changes - The first is still pretty humanoid, but already distorted and the scythe has appeared. You can see the more definitive death one in the other post (I did not relink it), and then you can see it has been pretty well entrenched if you look at art such as totentanz and granger in the 1850s.


Grim reaper Death party Totentanz Granger 1851 - Death playing instrument of bones


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more