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Many Religions and regions all over this magnificent globe we call earth believe in a being, an invisible force that comes around when one is near to death and takes their life essence away from this world. Some call it The Reaper some just death, but what is really uncertain is how it has come to be known and personified as an actual being.
From many centuries ago, around the time of the greeks and their studies of philosophy and of the gods. We have noticed a fascination with death, what it is, how it works, what it looks like. We want to see the face of death, we desire to know who takes our loved ones from this world.
The Psychopomp
The Greeks called death a "Psychopomp" which translates to "Guide of Souls", the psychopomp purpose was not to judge the soul; but to ensure safe passage for the soul to the place of judgment. They believed that the between stage was full of entities that would delay or permanently stop your progress through the abyss to your final resting place.
Many civilizations refer to a type of Psychopomp, that aids in the assistants of souls. Egyptians, Christians, Native Americans, even the remote tribes in Africa have similarities to a entity that helps the dead.
It goes back further than the Greeks though.... Egyptians and Death - Hand in Hand Marriage We all have heard of Anubis, god of the afterlife, and some of us have heard and read about thoth. Anubis was the one who lead the souls through the underworld, where they would be judged by thoth.
Their entire civilization was based around death, well in a round about way. They wanted to be guaranteed eternal life. Its amazing how their complex view of life and death and the way the world works, shaped their day to day lives and practices. That is more than we can fit in this topic and is really off topic so moving on. The River of Stix - The Boat Man To the Greeks (and alot of other civilizations) the afterlife consisted of many trials and tribulations before you arrived at your destination. One had to make sure their soul was pure to be awarded properly.
One such obstacle was the boat man at the river of stix, the Greeks believed in 5 rivers of Hades; Acheron - of Sorrow, Cocytus - Lamentation, Phlegethon - of Fire, Lethe- of Forgetfulness, and Styx - of hate.
The entity that would grant you passage across these rivers, was referred to as Charon. Commonly seen as the skeleton boatman across the river of styx.
There was a very widely held belief about the boat man on the rivers, you had to pay him off in order to get across safely. And you did have to cross the river or you would be lost forever wandering the thin layer between this world and the next. You would pay Charon with gold coins that were placed over your eyes and in your mouth, during your funeral preparations. If you have ever watched Troy (the movie with Brad Pitt), you'll get a better visible of what I described.
The Scythe
The most popular item to the grim reaper / death is the Scythe. Many people see it and think of the king of death, but where did it come from? Once again we are transported to a time when the Greek world was flourishing and mythology was the key aspects to religion. Kronos! is the answer my friend. Kronos was the harvest god symbolized by a scythe, makes sense? To some it might to others I might need to explain more, don't worry I myself had to do some research too to put it all together.
The harvest was the life bringer, we work all year long to plant and sow food. Then during the fall, we reap (hint hint!) what we sowed. If Kronos was good to us, we would have plenty of food to eat through the winter. If we pissed him off or he had an anger problem, we were wondering who was going to make it through the winter.
Starting to put it together?
Kronos was indirectly the grim reaper, he controlled whether you had food or not, thus taking life or giving you life.
That wraps up today's small topic, sorry if the information is rather jumpy or hard to follow through. I have been wanting to write this topic for sometime. Currently I'm writing a more detailed easy to follow version.
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