Death deities have become an integral part of modern culture. Indeed, since the dawn of humanity, civilizations in every corner of the globe have worshipped gods representing various aspects. These include love, war, prosperity, symbols, but also the passage to the afterlife. 💀 Today, we bring you our top 10 favorite Death gods from different cultures that fascinate us all equally.
The Gods of Death: what are they?
The deities associated with death take many different forms, depending on the specific culture and religion from which they originate. Psychopomps, underworld deities and resurrection deities are commonly referred to as Death gods in religious texts.
This term colloquially refers to deities who collect or govern the dead, rather than deities who determine the time of death ⏳. However, all these types of deities are included in this article.
Many mythologies and religions have incorporated a Death god. Since death, like birth, is a major element of human life, these deities often occupy a prominent place in a religion. In some religions where a single powerful deity is worshipped, the Death deity is often an antagonist with whom the main deity battles. 🤔
The associated term “death cult” has often been used pejoratively to accuse certain groups of morally repugnant practices that do not value human life. In monotheistic religions, death is usually personified by an angel or demon rather than a deity.
10) Ah Puch, the Mitnal Ruler
The Mayan Empire dominated Guatemala, the Yucatan Peninsula and vast areas of Mexico. With such a powerful civilization, one of the most feared gods of Death had to be on our list.
Ah Puch was once the god of darkness, death and disaster. He was often described as a skeletal creature or a corpse in an advanced state of decomposition. But to the Mayans, he represented one of the less dark deities in their pantheon.
Ah Puch ruled over the lowest and most feared of Xibalba’s nine levels (the realm of terror): Mitnal. Among the Mayans, this name evoked terror and death. Indeed, Mitnal represented an icy place of eternal cold and darkness. The unfortunates condemned to Mitnal were tortured, dismembered, burned and subjected to countless torments for eternity. 😱 In short, it’s not the place you’d want to go.
9) Ahriman and his Demons
We don’t know about your personal knowledge, but ours in Persian mythology is rather limited, not to say non-existent. The story of the origin of the world and of the god of Death is closely linked, so we have to go back a long way to talk about it.
In Persian mythology, the eternal struggle between good and evil is a central theme. The myths are inspired by an ancient religion called Zoroastrianism, which is one of the oldest religions known today. These myths have a particular resonance in modern Christianity. Ahura Mazda is the Wise Lord, the creator of the universe and the sole god of Zoroastrianism (a monotheistic religion).
With good always comes evil, and since our aim is to compile this top 10, we must include Ahriman. Ahriman is the ancestral equivalent of Satan. He is the possessor of death, misfortune, disease and all the other evils of the world. 🤯 Oh, and he’s also the brother of Ahura Mazda. Ahriman is accompanied by demons called “daevas”, who propagate and incite evil on Earth.
According to belief, when the hour of the end of time arrives, the Lord of Good, Ahura Mazda, will triumph over his demonic brother, and order will be restored to the world.
8) Accompanying the Souls with Thanatos
Here are the gods of Death both best known and least known in the religious hemisphere. It’s time for you to discover Hades and Thanatos.
Hades, one of the major gods of Greek mythology, was the brother of Poseidon and Zeus. After the defeat of their titan father Cronos, the brothers decided to divide their inheritance between them. Unfortunately, Hades inherited the Underworld and preferred to stay there, on the other side of the continent, rather than join the mortal realm.
However, although Hades reigns over the Underworld, he does not represent death itself. That role falls to Thanatos, which literally means “death” in Greek. His father was Hypnos, the god of sleep, and his mother was Nyx, the goddess of night. 🌙
Once a person dies, Thanatos is said to accompany dying souls and the dead into the underworld, where they are then entrusted to the care of Hades.
7) Nephthys & Anubis, the Gods of the Dead
Like most ancient religions, the Egyptians believed in numerous gods and goddesses linked to the Underworld and death. Our current vision of the Egyptian afterlife is actually inspired by the Book of the Dead, written and illustrated by the famous scribe Ani after having a vision of himself accompanied by his wife during their journey into the afterlife. For the Egyptians, the Book of the Dead served as a guide to help them reach life after death. 🤨
Anubis was the god of the dead, of tombs and mummies. He was the child of Osiris (more on that later) and Nephthys, the goddess of death and mourning. It’s also worth noting that Nephthys was both his mother and aunt. Incest was common!
The god Anubis, according to Egyptian belief, possessed the body of a man with the head of a wild dog or jackal. When a person died, it was believed that Anubis came to guide them to an unknown underworld, where they were then entrusted to Osiris. 🏺
Osiris has a rather dark history… Everything began well for him. He was the child of Geb, the earth god, and Nut, the sky goddess. After succeeding to power to become pharaoh, his brother Set became jealous. Set violently murdered him by cutting up his body and locked it in a coffin, which he sent down the Nile.
Then, an eternity passed before Osiris’ son and sisters put him back together again (literally). Osiris then became the ruler of the Underworld. It’s a pretty complex story.
6) Manga, Anime, and especially Japanese Shinigami
While the dominant mythologies of the Western world are well known, the culture and knowledge of Japanese folklore is relatively unknown. In this fabulous world of legends and myths linked to the Shinto religion, there are kami (gods) for just about everything. Really, absolutely everything. And death is no exception, with the gods of death known as Shinigami.
First appearing in the 18th century, they’re rather modern, with a resemblance to the Grim Reaper. Death entities generally work in pairs. They begin by addressing a person who is supposed to be dying, then invite him or her to pass into the grave, the transition point between life and death before crossing over to the other side. Very little is known about their appearance, as they are mainly spirits. There’s a story about a man about to commit suicide when the Shinigami appeared and told him it wasn’t yet his time to die, preventing him from committing the deed. 🤫
These gods of death are often found in manga, such as one of our favorites in our online store: Death Note. They work in tandem, with Ryuk on one side, who provides a notebook in which every person whose name is entered will die, and Light Yagami on the other, who inscribes these names with the aim of becoming a kami (a god).
But Death Note isn’t the only manga or anime to feature shinigami. If you like this genre, we recommend Noragami, an animated masterpiece in which the gods of death, war and love drive the disruptive spirits out of the human world.
Finally, many manga make reference to shinigami, or even have a character dedicated to these deities, as in Naruto, Gintama or even Mirai Nikki.
5) Yama, the first Dead Man
According to the Vedas, the ancient Hindu texts, there is a “Book of Destiny” in which all the actions of a human life are recorded. It is Yama, the god of death, who determines the sentence each departed soul will receive, as well as its path after death. 👀
Yama is said to have been the very first human being to die, hence his task of presiding over where the dead rest. He is also called Dharma, meaning “cosmic order”, as he works to maintain harmony (not to be confused with the Dharma of the Buddhist religion, which represents the precepts to be followed).
The name Yama means “twin” in Vedic Sanskrit and, in some Hindu myths, he has a twin sister named Yami, who is the mother goddess. They are among the oldest deities and are considered very wise. However, their status is inferior to that of the ultimate gods, Shiva and Vishnu.
4) Hel, on her way to Valhalla
Now to the Vikings! Norse mythology has a rather different approach to death. Each concept is associated with a god or goddess. And the best known of all is certainly Valhalla, the hall of the god Odin. All those who sit there once dead are great warriors, waiting to be called upon to fight alongside Odin in the battle of Ragnarök. ⚔️
The Valkyries help choose from among the dead heroic warriors, called the “chosen of the departed”, enabling them to join Odin’s sacred halls. Not only were they considered to be Odin’s servants, but in later times they were described in sinister terms, as they determined death in battle through sorcery.
Another representation of the afterlife in Norse mythology is Hel, attributed to the goddess Hel herself. “Hel” can be translated as “hidden”, which fits in well with her domain. According to Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century Icelandic scholar, the goddess Hel is the daughter of Angrboda and Loki, making her the sister of the gigantic wolf Fenrir 🐺 and the titanic sea serpent Jörmungand 🐍
Hel is described as being very similar to normal life in Viking times, but she was reputed in ancient Norse literature to be greedy and to care little for those in her realm. So every god of death in every civilization behaves very differently! If you’re really into the Viking mentality, we suggest you quench your thirst with our Viking Death’s Head Mug.
3) Morrigan, Queen of the Goddesses
The Celts had a simple way of managing the threshold between life and death. They simply had a goddess in charge of dealing with both. And “Morrigan” literally means “great ruler”. It’s a fitting title for a deity who watches over both life and death. What’s more, Morrigan is one of the Triple Goddesses. The three main aspects of her personality are represented by Anu, the maiden of fertility, Badb, the cauldron mother and the deity of death Macha. 💀
In Celtic belief, Morrigan was the wife of Dagda. Dagda was apparently the most important and famous Celtic god in all of Celtic mythology. He was also known as Ollathair, which literally translates as “All the Fathers”. He was the most powerful god on Earth.
According to legend, a war broke out with the Fomoires, and Dagda was assigned to spy on their camp. On his way to their camp, he spotted Morrigan taking a bath in the middle of a river. For a brief moment, Dagda put aside his mission to deceive Morrigan and revealed to her the plans of the Fomoires. Their relationship and collaboration made all the difference in defeating the Fomoires. They then formed the most powerful duo symbolizing ultimate power. 💪
2) Honoring France: Ankou
Putting France in the spotlight, we discover Ankou, a legendary figure associated with death and fate, acting as a psychopomp. His role is to collect souls at the moment of their death and guide them to the afterlife.
Ankou is often depicted as a tall, thin old man with long white hair. Sometimes he is described as a skeleton or a ghost appearing as a shadow. Dressed in a dark cloak, he conceals part of his grimacing face beneath a large hat. He also carries a spear or scythe, with the blade facing outwards.
In his skeletal form, Ankou can turn his head 360 degrees, enabling him to see his entire environment. He can light candles in his empty eye sockets. According to legend, he travels in an old cart emitting infernal noises, or in a huge black carriage pulled by sinister horses. This carriage is nicknamed the “chariot of death” (known in Brittany as Garrig an Ankou).
The creaking of the wheels is a harbinger of terror for ordinary mortals. To collect the souls of people living along coasts or rivers, Ankou makes his journeys on his own boat, called Bag noz, the “night boat”. This vessel carries the souls of the deceased to the shores of the afterlife. ⚰️ 🔥THE MOST POPULAR PRODUCTS🔥
