h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Grim Reaper - A794540
Author: Bels (in 4 Proms this year: 27 Jul (BBC4 TV), 11 Aug (BBC2 TV), 29 Aug, 1 Sep - all live on R3 / Internet, search BBCi: Proms - U188050

Would appreciate any further insights into this fascinating character.
28.07.02

There's some good stuff around that you can use:
A470882 Death (including the conversation F57918?thread=106128)
A470710 Lucifer

Hi Bels,

This is a what I remember from an Eng Lit lecture about five years ago.

The renaissance grim reaper often appeared in pictures (in England at any rate) with the rich and powerful, and was called "memento mori" (remember death / mortality ??) - I think it was supposed to be a kind of humbling factor. Apparently this has something to do with the graveyard scene in Hamlet, but at that point my memory fades.

Perhaps it might be worth mentioning cultural references to the grim reaper - Monty Python's Meaning of Life, Pratchet etc, but perhaps this might be over-long and under-interesting!

Good luck with this!

Otto

Bossel, thanks for those suggestions. I had seen those entries, but fear that any pickings there would be thin. The conversation you suggest is in fact massively ill-informed. Oberon is the fairy king, and I thought everyone knows the boatman is Charon and the Greek personification of death is Thanatos, but there you go...

Otto, yes, a skull would be a memento mori. Alas, poor Yorick! There are lots of literary/cultural references to TGR (I quoted a good one from Wilfred Owen in one of my entries, for example).

I shall try and find some amusing quotes about old age and death.

Any more suggestions?

Perhaps worth noting: Death was cheated only once in history, by Sisyphus (see A211050)

er, well, said entry doesn't exactly explain *why* Sisyphus was condemned

Bels, it is hard to imagine any discussion of this subject without a mention of Terry Pratchett. Pratchett is England's most popular author at the moment and Death features in every one of his books. In some such as Mort, Reaper Man and Soul Music he is a main character, but he plays cameo roles in all the others. He is the traditional black-cloaked skeleton with the scythe, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and he rides a pale horse.

Death is also number 13 in the Major Arcana of the Tarot Pack, usually shown as an unclothed skeleton with a scythe.

Could it be that this one is quoted from Monty Python or so?
A705089 The grim reaper sketch

Very interesting entry.

It seems to end a bit abruptly, from the earlier detail I was expecting something longer.


Something that might be considered is the medieval (european) view of death, which is suprisingly different to our own. my recolections are sadly vague but there are some good books on the subject. If you are interested I can try to find out some titles for you.........i must still have loads of bibliographies lurking around somewhere.

FABT

i had a quick look on a uni catalogue and i reckon that varying combinations of 'death' 'ritual' 'belief' and 'medieval' will find you a lot of useful books.

i got 'medieval death; ritual and representation' by paul binski coming up on the search, but i dont rememeber reading it so i dont know how useful it would be, if you like i'll see if i have any notes at home with bibliographies in......i know i had them at one point, it's just a case of if they are still hiding in my room.......

Bossel, Sisyphus was condemned to eternal torture because he seized and bound Thanatos (Death). He is not considered to have cheated Death in the end, because he can never have the peace and freedom from pain that Death brings.

There are other people similarly condemned, notably Tantalus, who stole the food of the gods and made himself immortal by eating it. He is eternally tantalised by food and water placed just in front of him but always receding just as he reaches out for it.

Gnomon, there are of course countless literary/cultural references to death and the TGR throughout the ages, not to mention paintings and music too. The list would be of encyclopaedic proportions, I fear. I have discussed what I think are the two major influences on our (Western) perception of TGR - the Judaeo-Islamic tradition, and the Graeco-Roman. Of course there are all sorts of Oriental traditions too.

FABT, I agree it needs working on stylistically. I wanted to see if there was any more content needed first.

so shall i have a look for those lists then?

Frankly, FABT, I only wanted to give a general overview of TGR, where he may have originated, how he has been depicted, and what he symbolises or personifies now, rather than do a complete survey of attitudes and philosophy of death throughout the ages, or of the abundant literary/cultural/artistic references. As you point out, whole books have been written about such matters, and I am sure several PhDs awarded. This is one of my shortest entries ever, but I don't really think I need to start opening floodgates.

ok....guess that told me then.

Hi Bels, see you're getting into the WW spirit with a piece of your own!

I'm afraid I'm going to be rather negative about this piece -

You seem to have devoted most of it to a resumé of early Greek mythology (ie the beginning of mythological 'history' for the ancient Greeks)

I for one *don't* regard this to be the main association with TGR (can't get into that abbrev.!)

In short, I wanted more stuff on the guy in the cloak and less on Kronos and Rhea!

It was all very interesting - but didn't do what it said on the tin!

Having seen various posts from you, I feel confident you won't take my comments badly; but just in case...

Don't Panic!

cya
spiff

Hi Spiff

Well I do have at least two other entries in WW at the moment, and another one that recently transferred from WW to PR!

Actually I quite agree it's too heavy on the Kronos stuff, which I think FABT was getting at, and which is what I meant about style.

It probably needs some surgery. I'll get my scythe out later.



Bels

i love the fact that the emperor in starwars looks a lot like the grim reaper

I'd go further and say that characters in big black cloaks are *always* creepy...

surely this is as much at the origins of the Grim Reaper's apparel as anything

Sorry, I don't want to be delicate, but Death is one of the four riders of the apocRalypse, and the pale horse is Binky- I am not right sure if this should be mentioned