

They were also shown holding a cup together as a way to symbolize the bond they shared with their brothers. They were often shown riding with other deities, such as Dionysos, or on top of Olympus’ Mount Helikon with Zeus. Hypnos and Thanatos were not considered gods themselves but were closely associated with the other gods. How did Thanatos and Hypnos relate to the other gods? Another reason for their common number could be because they are both siblings in a family of three. This would have symbolized their closeness to one another, just as there are many similarities in their individual roles.

Since both deities shared a common number, it has been theorized that they may have been classified together under this number. What was the significance of Hypnos and Thanatos’s number? The serpents on the winged horses and chariots represented death itself. The winged chariots pulled by both deities were symbols of the soul’s ascent. The winged horses ridden by both deities provided the means by which souls could be taken into the underworld. Why were Hypnos and Thanatos symbols used? Hypnos’s symbol was a sleeping woman’s headdress with serpents for hair, and Thanatos’s symbol was a winged skull with serpents for hair. Hypnos was represented as a winged youth emerging from his ears, while Thanatos was portrayed as a beardless youth who emerged from his skull on a horse-drawn chariot. Several symbols were associated with both deities. What symbols did Thanatos and Hypnos use? Where did Hypnos and Thanatos live?īoth deities lived in Erebos, a place located in the underworld, which was also called Hades. Thanatos was considered to be the stronger of the two because he was shown to be the one who carried off the souls of mortals into the underworld when they died. Neither Hypnos nor Thanatos had any offspring. The “Narceus” served both as an attribute for Hypnos and as the vehicle for his sister, Somnus (Dream). The horse’s head protruded from its forehead, so it could breathe and travel easily.

He had a winged horse (called a “Narceus”) that was pulled by a team of horses with no hooves. Hypnos’s function was to watch over the souls of the dead as they slept. The horses’ heads protruded from their foreheads, and they came out of his ears on either side. His chariot was drawn by winged horses that had no hooves. Thanatos’s duty was to carry off souls to their final resting place. According to ancient Greek mythology, he and his brother were both fathered by Nyx but raised by Hera in a cave on Mount Ida (in Crete). He was portrayed as a young bearded man with wings upon his shoulders emerging from his ears as he rides the back of a horse-drawn carriage. On the other hand, Hypnos was the personification of sleep. He was said to have been born from Night (Nyx) and Death itself (Erebus) when Aphrodite first separated the two in order to stop them from killing one another. Many times in ancient stories, Thanatos, the Greek God of death, was portrayed as a youthful man with wings upon his shoulders emerging from his skull as he rides his horse-drawn chariot. Thanatos was the personification of death, and he was often depicted carrying a dead soul to the underworld. Hypnos was a young, bearded man with wings upon his shoulders emerging from his ears as he rides on the back of a horse-drawn carriage. The depiction of Thanatos in Greek literature is that he was a young, beardless man with wings upon his shoulders emerging from his skull as he rides on a horse-drawn chariot. He appeared to mortals to take them off to the underworld when the time allotted to them by Moirai (the Fates) had expired. Thanatos was the son of Nyx, the goddess of night, and the brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Thanatos and Hypnos- Twin Disasters Where were Thanatos and Hypnos born? How did Thanatos and Hypnos relate to the other gods?.What was the significance of Hypnos and Thanatos’s number?.Why were Hypnos and Thanatos symbols used?.What symbols did Thanatos and Hypnos use?.
