Grim Reaper
Popular personification of death From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Popular personification of death From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Grim Reaper is a popular personification of death in Western culture in the form of a hooded skeletal figure wearing a black robe and carrying a scythe.[1][2] Since the 14th century, European art connected each of these various physical features to death, though the name "Grim Reaper" and the artistic popularity of all the features combined emerged as late as the 19th century. Sometimes, particularly when winged, the character is equated with the Angel of Death. The scythe as an artistic symbol of death has deliberate agricultural associations since the medieval period. The tool symbolizes the removal of human souls from their bodies in huge numbers, with the analogy being to a farmer (reaper) cutting through large swaths of grain crops during harvest.[2]
The Grim Reaper is a blend of various medieval or older European personifications of death, with its earliest direct inputs evident in art of 14th-century Europe in connection with the bubonic plague pandemic then ravaging the continent.[3][1] Several "Triumph of Death" paintings from Italy in that century show the character of death as either an animate skeleton or a human-like figure with wings carrying a scythe.[2] A horseback rider killing humans with an outstretched weapon is another common symbol for mass die-offs in this era,[4] as is the Danse Macabre, a group of dancing skeletons leading people to their graves: also a possible input.[5]
Romance language cultures, like in Italy and France,[5] traditionally tend to imagine death as female, while Slavic and Germanic language cultures, like English-speaking ones, tend to imagine death as male.[2] Time and the harvest were already artistically connected with death in the medieval period.[2] During the Renaissance, an early Grim Reaper image arose that conflated the aforementioned features of skeletons and scythes, possibly further conflating the ancient Greek deity Chronos, god of time, and the similarly-named Cronus, a Titan associated with the harvest, both of whom are also frequently depicted wielding a scythe or sickle;[1] Thanatos, the god of death, may also be related though he has few physical features of note.[2] In a church in England, a wooden figurine dating from 1640 portrayed a hooded and robed skeleton carrying a scythe and hourglass.[5] The color black for the Grim Reaper's cloak may be as recent as the 19th century, related to the wearing of black at funerals.[1]
The full Grim Reaper appearance (hooded skeleton, black robe, and scythe) became common by the mid-19th century, for instance as described in multiple Edgar Allan Poe short stories.[5] The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come has a similar look in the classic 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, silent and wearing a black cloak that conceals its whole face and body, its only visible body part being a single gesturing hand.[1] The term "Grim Reaper" itself only first emerged in English print in the 1840s.[6][7][2]
The Reaper has been variously portrayed in modern media ranging from books to films to television series to songs, in both dramatic and comedic works.[1] Death, hooded with a pale man's face, is a prominent character in Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal. An archetypal Grim Reaper appears in Terry Pratchett's 1980s-1990s fantasy comedy series of novels Discworld (simply named Death); the 1991 science-fantasy comedy film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey; the 1998 video game Grim Fandango; and the 2000s animated television series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.[1] The character also makes occasional appearances in the ongoing animated comedy series Family Guy.[1]
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