Thanatos

Thanatos was the personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to, but rarely appearing in person.

His name is transliterated in Latin as Thanatus, but his equivalent in Roman mythology is Mors or Letus/Letum.

In Myth and Poetry
Hesiod establishes in Theogony that Thanatos is a son of Nyx and Erebus and is the twin brother of Hypnos.

Homer also confirmed that Hypnos and Thanatos as twin brothers in the Iliad, where they were charged by Zeus via Apollo with the swift delivery of the slain hero Sarpedon to his homeland of Lycia.

Thanatos is occasionally specified as being exclusive to peaceful death, while the bloodthirsty Keres embodied violent death and accidental deaths. His duty was a Guide of the Dead was sometimes superseded by Hermes.

Thanatos was regarded as merciless and indiscriminate, hated by mortals and deathless gods. But in myths which feature him, Thanatos could occasionally be outwitted, a feat that the sly King Sisyphus of Korinth twice accomplished. When it came time for Sisyphus to die, Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain him up in Tartarus. Sisyphus cheated death by tricking Thanatos into his own shackles, thereby prohibiting the demise of any mortal while Thanatos was so enchained.

Eventually Ares grew frustrated with the battles he incited since neither side suffered any casualties. He released Thanatos and handed his captor over to the god. Sisyphus would evade Death a second time by convincing Persephone to allow him to return to his wife stating that she never gave him a proper funeral. This time, Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to the Underworld by Hermes when Sisyphus refused to accept his death. Sisyphus was sentenced to an eternity of frustration in Tartarus where he rolled a boulder up a hill and it would roll back down when it got close to the top.

In later eras, as the transition from life to death in Elysium became a more attractive option, he became associated more with a gentle passing than a woeful demise. Many images also depict him with wings, similar to Hypnos and Eros.

He is often shown carrying an inverted torch, which represents a life extinguished. He is also usually described with a sword sheathed at his belt.