Talk:List of death deities

Broadening the topic

Actually almost all religions are "Death God" religions in that emphasis is on dying well enough (sinless/forgiven) to achieve a favorable place in the afterlife. Very few religions set their focus on goals that matter only during life. Most clearly revolve around judgment by a God or The God at death. Christianity is particularly death obsessed in terms of a messiah, a part of the central god, who had to die and lives again and will rule those who die in a non-Earthly afterlife. Buddhism with its earthly cycle of reincarnations is about as close to life oriented religion as the major religions come. Scientology might be considered a religion that does not involve Death Gods, if not a major religion.

Thus this article needs to either define better criteria to separate out the Death Gods stated as different from mainstream religions, or include major religions as Death Gods of a particular type. Perhaps Monotheism is a subclass of Death Gods who are so important as to rule all aspects of existence. Whereas, the existing emphasis here seems to be on polytheism were the Death God is limited to power over circumstances of death or circumstances plus judgment as to which afterlife is attained -- but not governance of life before death nor afterlife once judged. If this article is limited to the latter cases then the article needs to start by stating that distinction.69.23.124.142 (talk) 00:09, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Research to be done

List assembled by Dreamingkat. Please edit in place.

Not enough credible sources to confirm yet (min 3, not counting wikipedia)

• Ilamatecuhtli- goddess of the earth, death, and the milky way
  • unable to find any
• Xi Balba - God of the Death
  • One reference in AD&D 1E Deities & Demigods book. This is not indicative of actual real-world status though.
  • unable to find any
• Osiris (Egyptian)
  • http://www.philae.nu/akhet/NetjeruO.html
  • http://www.egyptianmyths.net/osiris.htm

Not yet researched

• Janas - Goddesses of death
• Panas - Goddesses of reproduction (women dead in childbirth)
• Ankou (Breton)
• Izanami (Shinto)
• The Morrigan (Irish/Celtic)
  • One reference in AD&D 1E Deities & Demigods book. This is not indicative of actual real-world status though. Various other references to this deity in D&D products, but without specific notes as to sphere of influence.
• Mors (Roman)
• Mot (Canaanite)
• Odin (Norse)
• Anpu (Egyptian)
• Shemal (Semitic)
• Shinigami (Japanese)
• Sielulintu, Kalma, Surma (Finnish)
• Hun-Came (Mayan) Yum Cimil, a death deity,
• Yama (Hindu)
• Yanluo (Chinese)
• Polynesian - Marama is a lunar deity and a goddess of death for the Māori.
• Diedievaitė - Lithuanian: a deity of the black death.
• Australian aboriginal- Baiame: a sky god and a deity of death and life

Death versus underworld/hell

I saw that Hel was listed ars he god of death in he norse pantheon, but she is the goddess of Hell, the underworld for the people who died outside the balltefield (Balltefield deaths go to Wahalla and the hall of Freija). So, what is the focus on this page? Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 03:51, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm thinking that we should list both deities of the underworld and deities of death, as the two "jobs" overlap in an awful lot of cultures, and there is no list of deities of the underworld. Dreamingkat 03:57, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Depending on how you define Death Gods (which this article has not done) many polytheist hierarchies many not have a God of Death but only Gods of the afterlife. Specifically the narrowest definition of Death God might be "a god whose major duties and powers are to determine the time and circumstance of everyone's death and optionally judgment as to immediate disposition in the afterlife".

In that case the Fates, Furies and other equivalents of blind fate would dominate as the actual Death Gods in many European pantheons. Whereas Hel, Hades, and other Gods you are tossing around might then be just gods responsible for judgment and ruling the various possible afterlifes...though I note a tendency toward listing only Gods of negative afterlife outcomes. Again I note that some polytheist religious beliefs seemed to leave timing and circumstances of a persons death to random chance or even their own actions combined with events -- thus placing more emphasis on surprise judgment after death.69.23.124.142 (talk) 00:30, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Terming Kali as a God of death is a complete wrong thing to do. Kali is the Universal Mother who controls all things under the Sun. Her form, her worship celebrates life more than death. Please delete her name from that of a force of death.