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Depiction of Thanatos by Mexican artist Mauricio García Vega Hypnos and Thanatos: Sleep and His Half-Brother Death, by John William Waterhouse, 1874. According to Sigmund Freud , humans have a life instinct—which he named " Eros "—and a death drive, which is commonly called (though not by Freud himself) "Thanatos".
The scene of death is described in Euripides' play Alcestis, where Thanatos, the god of death, takes Alcestis to the Underworld. As Alcestis descends, Admetus discovers that he actually does not want to live: I think my wife's fate is happier than my own, even though it may not seem so.
Hypnos and Thanatos carrying the body of Sarpedon from the battlefield of Troy; detail from an Attic white-ground lekythos, ca. 440 BC. [15] Hypnos used his powers to trick Zeus. Hypnos was able to trick him and help the Danaans win the Trojan War. During the war, Hera loathed her brother and husband, Zeus, so she devised a plot to trick him.
When he appears together with his twin brother, Hypnos, the god of sleep, Thanatos generally represents a gentle death. Thanatos, led by Hermes psychopompos, takes the shade of the deceased to the near shore of the river Styx, whence the ferryman Charon, on payment of a small fee, conveys the shade to Hades, the realm of the
Key: The names of the generally accepted Olympians [11] are given in bold font.. Key: The names of groups of gods or other mythological beings are given in italic font. Key: The names of the Titans have a green background.
According to Hesiod's Theogony, Nyx is the offspring of Chaos, alongside Erebus (Darkness), by whom she becomes the mother of Aether and Hemera (Day). [7] Without the assistance of a father, Nyx produces Moros (Doom, Destiny), Ker (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), the Keres ...
Once Thanatos was bound by the strong chains, no one died on Earth, causing an uproar. Ares, the god of war, became annoyed that his battles had lost their fun because his opponents would not die. The exasperated Ares intervened, freeing Thanatos, enabling deaths to happen again and turned Sisyphus over to him. [15]
Milton's famous sonnet, "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint", c. 1650, alludes to the myth, with the speaker of the poem dreaming of his dead wife being brought to him "like Alcestis". Lully wrote an opera, first performed in 1674, based on the story. Händel wrote a 1750 masque, or semi-opera, based on this myth.