Thanatos in Greek vase painting

Thanatos in Greek vase painting

Most of the identified symbols of Thanatos correspond to Greek Etruscan and Neoclassical art. The soul begins its journey to Hades driven by Hermes. The treatment of Thanatos in tragic poetry the mythical transfer of the body of Sarpedon the symbol of Thanatos and his genealogy according to Hesiod in the collective imagination of the ancient world transporting the deceased, both physically and spiritually from the place of his death to the place of his funeral. In Greek and Roman literature and symbolism Thanatos and his sleeping brother Hypnos in the process of the journey transport the deceased both physically and spiritually from the place of his death.

A large reservoir, circa 750-735 BC, currently on display at 

the Metropolitan Museum of Art. / image ; platosfire.co.uk

Thanatos is a god or spirit representing a mild death. His touch is gentle comparable to that of his twin brother Hypnos (Sleeping). Violent death is the domain of Keres who appears as a winged figure carrying a body, sometimes assisted by Thanatos' bloodthirsty sister Hypnos a spirit of murder and disease. More violent deaths in Greek mythology and art are often in the context of a dignified departure.

Symbolism in Greek Art of the Athenian Period

In Greek vase paintings Thanatos is depicted as a winged, bearded old man or sometimes as a beardless young man. He frequently appears in scenes from the Iliad opposite his brother Hypnos (sleeping) who is carrying the body of Sarpedon. In Roman bas-relief he is depicted as a young man holding an upside-down torch and a wreath or butterfly symbolizing the soul of the dead. Thanatos plays a major role in two myths once when he is sent to escort Alkestis (Alkestis) to the underworld he is driven out in battle by Heracles and once when he is captured by the criminal Sisyphus (Sisyphus) who locks him in a sack to avoid death.

Euphronius Vase (or Sarpedon Crater), with the signatures of Eusytheos as potter and Euphronius as painter, c. 515 BC. Red terracotta. Diameter 55.1 cm. (National Museum of Cerite, Cerveteri, Italy, Photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0)

The ancient Greeks produced beautiful pottery to be offered at the graves of their loved ones from the large Thanatos and Hypnos vases carrying the body of the hero Sarpedon as described in Homer's Iliad. The Athenian vase painter Sarpedon Krater was famous for his white-ground lekithoi depicting scenes of death and mourning including Thanatos's paintings such as the 5-foot-long large vase whose bottom depicted a burial scene which meant "laying the body" to show respect and mourning for the dead to the elaborate white-ground lekithoi of Classical Athens (480-323 BC). Another popular ceremonial pottery of the past was the white-ground lekithos a simple column-shaped pottery set on a double base decorated with taenia topped with two projecting rims used in the burial of dead warriors in grave rituals as well as the feathered, bearded winged figure symbol of Thanatos and the armored cloaked warrior figure. Today the cultural value of pottery art Cremation has artistic value for its aesthetic or sculptural value for its combat value and for its potential to damage antiquities such as the "Euphronios Vase". Art History of the Museum Sculpture is not only valuable for its aesthetic or cultural value but also for its role in shaping the knowledge of art history. This Euphronios Vase was looted from an Etruscan tomb not far from Rome in 1971.