Our earliest records of the Reaper date back to Greek civilization. Gaia and Uranus were Kronos' parents. Uranus, fearful of all his children including Kronos kept them constrained inside Gaia. Gaia wished to free her children and decided to give Kronos a sickle. With this sickle Kronos eventually castrated his father and bled him to death. Knowing how he had killed his father, once Kronos had children of his own, he feared his fate would be the same. As each child was born he swallowed them one by one.
From ancient folklore and other anthropological sources it is believed that Kronos was a harvest god worshipped by a culture before the Greeks. It is understood that his sickle was used in harvesting grain. Harvest was also associated with death because it signaled the end of the growing season and the beginning of Winter. Time devouring all things was represented poetically by Kronos eating his own children. It was the Greeks very dramatic way of saying nothing lasts forever.
The Grim Reaper wielding a sickle and, at times, an hourglass is directly derived from Kronos. One must understand how important grain was to these ancient civilizations. How horrible the thought of some mystic creature with the power to swipe away their whole harvest with a single swing of the mighty sickle. Not to mention the flock of famished crows, which would accompany such a terrible figure. It undoubtedly symbolized death in an extremely effective way. Though the Grim Reaper poses no real threat to our life, his legacy, which has been handed down from generation to generation, has instilled in us all the fear we need to ensure the desired effect. Hopefully, this answer aided you in understanding the significance of such a relevant myth.
2006-09-05 10:09:24
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answer #1
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answered by melissa 6
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there are various of ideas. This one is sensible to me... In Germanic folklore Odin, who rode on a nightmarish horse and wielded a spear had each and every of the features of those linked with the bleak Reaper. some historians also declare that Odin who replaced into which is called Grimnir extra about the conceptualization of the bleak Reaper.
2016-12-06 11:30:02
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answer #2
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answered by priscilla 2
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He came from the far side of the river Styx to lead souls to the afterlife
2006-09-05 10:11:11
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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seems most closly realted to the faryman at the river styx from the greek myths
2006-09-05 10:08:15
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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he was an Irish man from nenagh county Tipperary i used to drink with him regularly at Louie's pub
2006-09-05 10:18:25
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answer #5
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answered by ocairde 2
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Wha?.........
2006-09-05 10:11:28
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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