The Grim Reaper

Astonishing Legends vor 7 Jahren

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2:05:33

When you hear the name, "The Grim Reaper," a very familiar image
probably pops into your head. With the black robe and cowl,
skeletal face and hands or the visage of a dour corpse, a
threatening scythe, and hourglass at its last sands, this is the
image the modern, western person thinks of when we personify
death. But where did this visual come from? How do we know what
death looks like? And since death has always been with us, isn't
this image as old as that finality itself? One might think so,
but that doesn't seem to be the case. Surely since there have
been humans, we have wondered what becomes of us once we die,
where do we go when we shuffle off this mortal coil, and how do
we get there? What we have found is that yes, we have always
created myths and put a face on death in order to help comprehend
such an abstract and mysterious concept, but that face has
morphed through the ages and varies by culture. In the ancient
western world, the concept of a Grim Reaper was more of a
psychopomp, a guide that takes the freshly departed to their
place in the afterlife. But since we have doubts nowadays when it
comes to a more universally accepted idea of an afterlife,
perhaps the notion of a ghastly specter that merely extinguishes
our spark when our time has come is more relatable. And he's just
a mythic character, right? A cartoon? Well not if you ask some
folks who claimed to have seen him and lived to tell about it.
Whatever the truth, in one sense, in the end, it doesn't matter
if you believe at the moment of death that we are whisked away to
another realm or it's just "lights out." As the saying goes,
whether king or pauper, a Grim Reaper comes for us all.

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