concept

Death

Beliefs & concepts

The end of a life, and the many geographies, rites, and stories people have built around that fact.

tradition · 12

Norse tradition

Death appears in Norse tradition.
Snorri’s Gylfaginning seats Hel among the dead’s allotment and tells Baldr’s death among the gods’ grief. A named death in that prose, not death-of-baldr as the named episode already walked and not a generic mortality slogan.
from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220
appears in · sourced · documented

Shinto

Death appears in Shinto.
The Kojiki has Izanami die in the fire-birth and rule as the great kami of Yomi among the dead. Death as that underworld narrative’s charge, not Baldr’s death alone and not a generic mortality slogan.
from Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation) · Kojiki, 712 CE; Philippi trans. 1968
appears in · sourced · documented

Egyptian religion

Death appears in Egyptian religion.
The Book of the Dead is a corpus for the dead who must still act — passage, weighing, and going forth after burial. Egyptian death speech in that funerary book, not a bare end-of-life mood and not cremation dumps.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
appears in · sourced · documented

Buddhist traditions

Death appears in Buddhist traditions.
Watson’s Lotus Sūtra speaks of death among the sufferings of saṃsāra and of the Buddha’s apparent final nirvana. Named death speech in that sūtra, not a generic grim-reaper dump and not Egyptian funerary death alone.
from Burton Watson (translation) · The Lotus Sutra, 1993 (this translation); Sanskrit/Chinese recensions much older
appears in · sourced · documented

Vedic tradition

Death appears in Vedic tradition.
The Ṛgveda names death (mṛtyu) among hymn speech of ending, ancestors, and the path of the dead. A named Vedic death in that corpus, not an underworld geography dump and not Book of the Dead weighing alone.
from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older
appears in · sourced · documented

Hellenic religion

Death appears in Hellenic religion.
Hesiod’s Theogony places Thanatos among Night’s children beside Sleep. A named Hellenic Death in that cosmogony, not Hades as the below already walked and not a pan-cultural death dump.
from Hesiod · Theogony, c. 700 BCE
appears in · sourced · documented

Nahua tradition

Death appears in Nahua tradition.
Sahagún’s Florentine Codex records death, funerary treatment, and Mictlan roads among gods’ and earthly books — named death in Nahua eschatology and rite. A colonial-era Nahua ethnographic attestation, not a pan-Mesoamerican essence and not an unfiltered pre-invasion voice.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
appears in · sourced · culturally specific

Islam

Death appears in Islam.
The Qur’an continually names death (mawt) as God’s act, as every soul’s appointed end, and as the gate before rising. Islamic death speech in that revelation, not Egyptian death-crafts already walked and not a gothic mood dump.
from M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (translation) · The Qur’an, 2004 (this translation); Arabic text 7th century CE
appears in · sourced · documented

Roman religion

Death appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid seats death as battlefield end, underworld population, and funerary care from Troy to Latium. Death as published concept in that epic, not Norse/Shinto/Egyptian death walks restated.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented

Death appears in Astrology.
Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos treats length of life and destructive conditions among nativity chapters of judicial astrology. A named death problem in that handbook, not Egyptian weighing alone and not a grim slogan dump.
from Claudius Ptolemy · Tetrabiblos, c. 150 CE
appears in · sourced · documented

Mesopotamian tradition

Mesopotamian tradition is connected to Death.
Gilgamesh’s poem is preoccupied with death after Enkidu. Mesopotamian tradition here meets death as an epic problem, not an Egyptian weighing.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
connected to · sourced · documented

Maya tradition

Maya tradition is associated with Death.
The Popol Vuh’s Xibalba is a Kʼicheʼ court of the dead. The tradition’s death-geography is that court, not Hades.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
associated with · sourced · culturally specific

object · 8

Nahua tradition

Death is associated with Obsidian.
Nahua ritual used obsidian blades. Blood and cutting belong to that material history, not to a mood of “darkness.”
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific
Obsidian is associated with Death.
Obsidian blades in Nahua offering are instruments that open bodies. Death here is a ritual fact of cutting, not a mood.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific

Bone is associated with Death.
Bone remains when soft stuff is gone. Relics and later memento images use that remainder; they are not one doctrine of the person.
associated with · interpretive · documented
Myrrh is associated with Death.
Burial uses of myrrh are attested in some Mediterranean and Near Eastern practices. They are local, not a universal “death resin.”
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific

Chinese tradition

Jade is used in Death.
Chinese burial practice, as Laufer treats it, places jade on and in the corpse (mouth pieces, plugs, tomb jades). A Chinese mortuary craft, not Classic Maya funerary jadeite and not “jade energy.”
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · culturally specific
Chisel is used in Death.
Laufer’s Jade Chapter I reports stone chisels and related implements buried with the dead in Sichuan coffin finds. A named burial-goods use in that survey, not jade mouth-pieces and plugs already walked as jade-death-chinese, and not a rebirth-token invent.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · culturally specific
Flint is used in Death.
Laufer’s Jade Chapter I cites flint chisels found in stone coffins in Sichuan among implements buried with the dead. A named burial-goods use in that survey, not Book of the Dead Opening-of-the-Mouth flint and not jade-death-chinese mortuary jade restated.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · culturally specific

Maya tradition

Jade is used in Death.
Taube describes Classic Maya jadeite in funerary rites and in conjuring gods and ancestors, as a material of the breath-spirit. A Maya tomb and earspool grammar, not Chinese orifice-plugs and not a pan-Mesoamerican “jade of immortality.”
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
used in · sourced · culturally specific

animal · 4

European folklore

Raven is associated with Death.
The same European folk reading that treats the raven as an omen often takes the omen to be of a death. The pairing is local custom, not a zoological fact.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Crow is associated with Death.
European folk speech can treat a crow as a death-bird. The omen is local custom, not Tlingit Raven the creator.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Owl is associated with Death.
The same folk reading often takes the omen to be of a death. Local custom, not a zoological fact and not Egyptian night-theology.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

Egyptian religion

Serpent is associated with Death.
Egyptian tradition treats Apep as a serpent of chaos opposed to the sun’s order. Danger here is cosmic opposition, not Asklepian healing and not a feathered serpent of wind.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific

place · 4

Death is associated with Underworld.
Many traditions give the dead a place. The places disagree; this edge only says that death and a below are often paired, not that they are one map.
associated with · interpretive · documented

Maya tradition

Death is associated with Xibalba.
The Popol Vuh sends the Hero Twins into Xibalba, a court of the dead with trials. It is a Kʼicheʼ below, not Duat.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
associated with · sourced · culturally specific

Hellenic religion

Hades is associated with Death.
The Greek below is a geography of the dead. Descent stories go there for a local reason.
from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE
associated with · partially sourced · documented

Egyptian religion

Duat is associated with Death.
The Egyptian below is a geography for a dead person who must still act. Death here is a passage with gates, not a stop.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · sourced · documented

being · 3

European folklore

Banshee is historically related to Death.
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable seats the Banshee as the domestic spirit of certain Irish or Highland Scottish families that wails at the death of one of the family — allowed to pure Milesian stock. A named Banshee in that death-wail speech, not a kelpie, not a selkie, and not a leprechaun.
from Ebenezer Cobham Brewer · Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1870 (and later PD editions)
historically related to · sourced · culturally specific

Celtic tradition

Dullahan is historically related to Death.
Keightley seats the dullahan among Irish headless riders as death-omens — death-rider speech, not a banshee wail alone.
from Thomas Keightley · The Fairy Mythology, 1828 (enlarged PD eds. mid-19th c.)
historically related to · sourced · documented

Norse tradition

Draugr is historically related to Death.
Keightley seats the draugr among Norse undead mound-dwellers Draugr historically related to death and the dead, not a free synonym dump and not a forced identity merge.
from Thomas Keightley · The Fairy Mythology, 1828 (enlarged PD eds. mid-19th c.)
historically related to · sourced · documented

concept · 3

Egyptian religion

Death is associated with Rebirth.
Egyptian funerary spells work for a justified dead who may go forth by day. That hope is Egyptian, not a generic cycle.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · sourced · culturally specific

Death is associated with Transformation.
Some stories treat dying as a change of state rather than a stop. Osiris, grain, and later alchemical “death of matter” are different claims.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Soul is associated with Death.
Soul-talk is often talk about what death does not finish. The claim is local even when the word is reused.
associated with · interpretive · documented

deity · 3

Norse tradition

Odin is associated with Death.
Snorri’s Odin receives the slain and is concerned with the dead of battle. That is a war-god’s economy of death, not a generic grim reaper.
from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220
associated with · partially sourced · documented

Egyptian religion

Anubis is associated with Death.
Anubis is a god of the body’s care after death. The job is embalming and guiding in an Egyptian tomb, not a generic reaper.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · sourced · documented
Osiris is associated with Death.
Osiris is a dead god who remains a king of the dead. Death and kingship meet in that Egyptian office.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · sourced · documented

element · 3

Salt is associated with Death.
Salt holds flesh from rot. The material fact has been used as a picture of holding off decay; that picture is not a doctrine.
associated with · interpretive · documented
Fire is associated with Death.
Fire consumes. Cremation, war, and ordinary accident are different meetings with that fact; none of them cancel fire’s use as a purifying gift.
associated with · interpretive · documented
Iron is associated with Death.
Iron takes an edge. Weapons are one job of that fact; they are not Saturn’s lead and not a luck-charm.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

plant · 2

Norse tradition

Tree is associated with Death.
The world-tree stands over wells and the dead as Snorri arranges them. The tree is not itself a tomb.
from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220
associated with · partially sourced · documented

Cypress is associated with Death.
In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediæval Christian Art, in later times the Cypress was adopted as an emblem of mourning and death from the dark colour of its foliage — the cypress marks that death.
from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)
associated with · sourced · documented

practice · 2

Nahua tradition

Death is associated with Offerings.
Sahagún records offerings, including costly ones, in Mexica religion. The gift economy of the gods is Nahua as his collaborators told it.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
associated with · sourced · culturally specific

Death is associated with Rite.
Funerary rites treat death as an ending that still requires work. The work is local: weighing, wake, or cremation.
associated with · interpretive · documented

color · 1

European folklore

Black is associated with Death.
European mourning has used black cloth. The custom is local; it is not Egyptian green Osiris and not a proof that night is death.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

symbol · 1

Egyptian religion

Eye is opposed to Death.
The wedjat is among the marks meant to keep a dead person whole. Protection against damage in the tomb is not the folk blighting glance.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
opposed to · partially sourced · culturally specific

Two stored meetings of this pair

Chinese tradition

Maya tradition