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The origin of death is a theme in the myths of many cultures. Death is a universal feature of human life, so stories about its origin appear to be universal in human cultures. [1] As such it is a type of origin myth, a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. No one type of these myths is universal, but ...
In Greek mythology, Thanatos (/ ˈ θ æ n ə t ɒ s /; [2] Ancient Greek: Θᾰ́νᾰτος, Thánatos, pronounced in Ancient Greek: "Death", [3] from θνῄσκω thnēskō "(I) die, am dying" [4] [5]) was the personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person.
The mythology or religion of most cultures incorporate a god of death or, more frequently, a divine being closely associated with death, an afterlife, or an underworld. They are often amongst the most powerful and important entities in a given tradition, reflecting the fact that death, like birth , is central to the human experience.
In Scandinavia, Norse mythology personified death in the shape of Hel, the goddess of death and ruler over the realm of the same name, where she received a portion of the dead. [9] In the times of the Black Plague , Death would often be depicted as an old woman known by the name of Pesta, meaning "plague hag", wearing a black hood.
The origin of death is a theme or myth of how death came to be. It is present in nearly all cultures across the world, as death is a universal happening. [120] This makes it an origin myth, a myth that describes how a feature of the natural or social world appeared. [121] [122] There can be some similarities between myths and cultures.
The threefold death, which is suffered by kings, heroes, and gods, is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European theme encountered in Indic, Greek, Celtic, and Germanic mythology. Some proponents [ who? ] of the trifunctional hypothesis distinguish two types of threefold deaths in Indo-European myth and ritual.
A myth about the origin of a specific part of the world assumes the existence of the world itself, which often relies on a cosmogonic myth. [3] Therefore, origin myths can be seen as expanding upon and building upon their cultures' cosmogonic myths. In traditional cultures, it is common for the recitation of an origin myth to be preceded by the ...
The Maasai tell a story of how Le-eyo was told by the god Ngai that he must say a prayer when a child dies, to make sure that the child will come back to life. When a child died that was not his own, Le-eyo said a prayer for the child to remain dead but the moon to return.