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In Greek mythology, the Keres (singular: Ker) were female death-spirits and sources of evils. In some texts, Ker is the single goddess of violent death. According to Hesiod, the Keres were daughters of Nyx, and as such the sisters of Fate (Moirae), Doom (Moros), Death and Sleep (Thanatos and Hypnos), Strife (Eris), Old Age (Geras), Divine Retribution (Nemesis), Charon, and other personifications. Some, such as Cicero who calls them by a Latin name, Tenebrae, or the Darknesses, name them daughters of Erebus and Nyx. The Oricoli bust of Zeus, King of the Gods, in the collection of the Vatican Museum. ...
Bust, traditionally thought to be Seneca, now identified by some as Hesiod. ...
In Greek mythology, Nyx (, Nox in Roman translation) was the primordial goddess of the night. ...
In Greek mythology, the white-robed Moirae or Moerae (Greek ΜοίÏαι — the Apportioners, often called the Fates) were the personifications of destiny (Roman equivalent: Parcae, sparing ones, or Fatae; also equivalent to the Germanic Norns). ...
In Spanish, Moros means Moors. ...
In Greek mythology, Thanatos (θάνατος, death) was the personification of death (Roman equivalent: Mors), and a minor figure in Greek mythology. ...
In Greek mythology, Hypnos was the personification of sleep; the Roman equivalent was known as Somnus. ...
The name Eris may refer to: Eris (dwarf planet), the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system (also called 136199 Eris, whose provisional designation was 2003 UB313) Eris (mythology), in Greek mythology the goddess of discord, and the Goddess of Discordianism Eris (spider), a genus of jumping spiders Eris...
Geras, detail of an Attic red-figure pelike, ca. ...
Nemesis, by Alfred Rethel (1837) Nemesis (in Greek, ÎÎμεσις), also called Rhamnousia (the goddess of Rhamnous), at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, in the Greek mythology was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris, vengeful fate personified as a remorseless goddess. ...
In Greek mythology, Charon (Greek ΧάÏων, fierce brightness) was the ferryman of Hades. ...
Phillipp Veitts Germania (1877) a personification of Germany. ...
In Greek mythology Erebus (ΈÏεβος Erebos, Desert from eremos ) was a primordial god, the personification of darkness and shadow, which filled in all the corners and crannies of the world. ...
In Greek mythology, Nyx (, Nox in Roman translation) was the primordial goddess of the night. ...
- "And Nyx (Night) bare hateful Moros (Doom) and black Ker (Violent Death) and Thanatos (Death), and she bare Hypnos (Sleep) and the tribe of Oneiroi (Dreams). And again the goddess murky Nyx, though she lay with none, bare Momos (Blame) and painful Oizys (Misery), and the Hesperides ... Also she bare the Moirai (Fates) and the ruthless avenging Keres (Death-Fates) ... Also deadly Nyx bare Nemesis (Envy) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Apate (Deceit) and Philotes (Friendship) and hateful Geras (Old Age) and hard-hearted Eris (Strife)." (Hesiod, Theogony 211, translated by Evelyn-White).
They were described as dark beings with gnashing teeth and claws and with a thirst for human blood. They would hover over the battlefield and search for dying and wounded men. A description of the Keres can be found in the Shield of Heracles (248-57): Bust, traditionally thought to be Seneca, now identified by some as Hesiod. ...
Wikisource has original text related to this article: Theogony Wikisource has original text related to this article: Theogony (in Greek) Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the gods of ancient Greek religion. ...
The black Dooms gnashing their white teeth, grim-eyed, fierce, bloody, terrifying fought over the men who were dying for they were all longing to drink dark blood. As soon as they caught a man who had fallen or one newly wounded, one of them clasped her great claws around him and his soul went down to Hades, to chilly Tartarus. And when they had satisfied their hearts with human blood, they would throw that one behind them and rush back again into the battle and the tumult. Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure Apulian vase made in the 4th century BC. For other uses, see Hades (disambiguation). ...
Tartarus, or Tartaros is a place of eternal torment and suffering, similar to the Hell of Christianity, Netherworld of Pagan religions, the Hindu Naraka, Judaic Gehenna, Chinese Di Yu, Islamic Jahannam, and Roman Paradise. ...
As death daemons, they were also associated with the Hound of Hades, Cerberus, whose name can be read as the Ker of Erebus. Cerberus - Watercolour by William Blake In Greek mythology, Cerberus or Kerberos (Greek ΚÎÏβεÏος, Kerberos, demon of the pit), was the hound of Hades—a monstrous three-headed dog (sometimes said to have 50 or 100 heads) with a snake for a tail and serpentine mane. ...
In Greek mythology Erebus (ΈÏεβος Erebos, Desert from eremos ) was a primordial god, the personification of darkness and shadow, which filled in all the corners and crannies of the world. ...
A parallel, and equally unusual personification of "the baleful Ker" is in Homer's depiction of the Shield of Achilles (Iliad,ix.410ff), which is the model for the Shield of Heracles. These are works of art that are being described.
In the fifth century Keres were imaged as small winged sprites in vase-paintings adduced by J.E. Harrison (Harrison, 1903), who described apotropaic rites and rites of purification that were intended to keep the Keres at bay.
According to a statement of Stesichorus noted by Eustathius, Stesichorus "called the Keres by the name Telchines", whom Eustathius identified with the Kuretes of Crete, who could call up squalls of wind and would brew potions from herbs (noted in Harrison, p 171). Categories: Possible copyright violations ...
Eustathius(or Eumathius) surnamed Macrembolites (living near the long bazaar), the last of the Greek romance writers, flourished in the second half of the 12th century AD. His title Protonobilissimus shows him to have been a person of distinction, and if he is also correctly described in the manuscripts, as...
In Greek mythology, the Telchines were the original inhabitants of the island of Rhodes, and were known in Crete and Cyprus. ...
The Korybantes, called the Kurbantes in (Phrygia), are the crested dancers who worship the Phrygian goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. ...
The term Keres has also been cautiously used to describe a person’s fate.[1] An example of this can be found in the Illiad where Achilles was given the choice (or Keres) between either a long and obscure life and home, or death at Troy and everlasting glory. Also, when Achilles and Hector were about to engage in a fight to the death, the god Zeus weighed both warrior's keres to determine who shall die.[2] As Hector’s ker was deemed heavier, he was the one destined to die.[3] During the festival known as Anthesteria, the Keres were driven away. Their Roman equivalents were Letum (“death”) or the Tenebrae (“shadows”). The Iliad (Greek Ἰλιάς, Ilias) tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium, i. ...
The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre) In Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus (Ancient Greek ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War...
The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre) In Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus (Ancient Greek ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War...
Hector brought back to Troy. ...
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving In Greek mythology, Zeus (in Greek: nominative: ΖεÏÏ‚ Zeús, genitive...
Hector brought back to Troy. ...
Anthesteria, one of the four Athenian festivals in honour of Dionysus, held annually for three days (11th-13th) in the month of Anthesterion (February-March). ...
"Hunger, pestilence, madness,. nightmare have each a sprite behind them; are all sprites," J.E. Harrison oberved (Harrison 1903, p 169), but two Keres might not be averted, and these, which emerged from the swarm of lesser ills, were Old Age and Death. Odysseus says, "Death and the Ker avoiding, we escape" (Odyssey xii.158), where the two are not quite identical: Harrison (p. 175) found the Christian parallel "death and the angel of death".
Among destructive personifications are (not all called Keres);
- Anaplekte (Quick,Painful Death),
- Akhlys (mist, that is, of death),
- Nosos (disease),
- Ker (destruction),
- Stygere (hateful).
Keres and Valkyries
It is possible that a connection exists between Keres and the Valkyries of Norse myth. Both deities are war spirits that fly over battlefields during conflicts and choose those to be slain. The difference is that Valkyries are benevolent deities in contrast to the malevolence of the Keres, perhaps due to the different outlook of the two cultures towards war. Also the greek word "keres" (choice) and the Old Norse word "kyrja" (to choose) from "valkyrja" seem to have a common root. This article is about the Valkyries, figures of Norse mythology. ...
Old Norse is the Germanic language spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. ...
Notes - ^ In the second century AD Pausaniuas equated the two (x.28.4). "Here and elsewhere to translate 'Keres' by fates is to make a premature abstraction," Jane Ellen Harrison warned (Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, "The Ker as Evil Sprite" p 170. See also Harrison's section "The Ker as Fate" pp 183-87).
- ^ This Kerostasia, or weighing of keres may be paralleled by the Psychostasia or weighing of souls; a lost play with that title was written by Aeschylus and the Egyptian parallel is familiar.
- ^ The subject appears in vase-paintings, where little men are in the scales: "it is the lives rather than the fates that are weighed", Harrison remarks (Prolegomena p 184).
Pausanias (Greek: ) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ...
Jane Ellen Harrison (September 9, 1850–April 5, 1928) was a ground-breaking English classical scholar and feminist. ...
Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: ΑσχÏλος) was a playwright of Ancient Greece. ...
References - March, J., Cassell's Dictionary Of Classical Mythology, London, 1999. ISBN 0-304-35161-X
- Harrison, Jane Ellen, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion 1903. Chapter V: "The demonology of ghosts and spites and bogeys"
- Theoi Project, Keres references in classical literature
Jane Ellen Harrison (September 9, 1850–April 5, 1928) was a ground-breaking English classical scholar and feminist. ...
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