Grim reaper q biography of abraham

Please be the first person to add trivia for this topic! Director: Chris Evans. Two strangers stuck in Manhattan for the night grow into each other's grim reaper q biography of abraham trusted confidants when an evening of unexpected adventure Director: Jonas PateMichael Waxman. About Jane Timoney, an iconoclastic female detective who has to make her bones in a tough New York precinct that is dominated by men Director: Jean de SegonzacPaul Holahan.

Carrie Wells, a former police detective, has a rare ability to remember virtually everything she experiences including detailed visual JChristine Nice show! Director: Andrew BernsteinLawrence Trilling. Three nurses deal with patients and personal issues at Mercy Hospital. Director: Elizabeth Wood. Summer, New York City. 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.

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.

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. 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.

The full Grim Reaper appearance hooded skeleton, black robe, and scythe became common by the midth century, for instance as described in multiple Edgar Allan Poe short stories. 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. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. What will we see? What will we do? Where will we go? He comes for every person, hourglass in hand, waiting for the last grain of sand to fall. When it does, he collects the soul with a well-practiced cut of his razor-sharp blade. It may not be a pleasant image, but it is clear and unmistakable. Ultimately, this is the "job" of the Grim Reaper -- to put a human face on the concept of death.

But why did humans feel compelled to make the Grim Reaper, well, so grim? Why not make him a friendly and helpful guide to the underworld? And why, for that matter, does he have to be a guy? We'll address all of these questions on the next few pages. We'll also examine how painters, writers and filmmakers have portrayed the Reaper in their works.

When we're done, you'll know who the Grim Reaper is should you spy him lurking by your deathbedhow he works and, most important, why he exists at all. And for the Grim Reaper, the beginning can be found in the creation myths present in all cultures. In almost all cultures and religions, humans were first created as immortal beings who fell from their state of perfection.

The fall of Adam and Eve is the classic example, chronicled in the Bible. The first man and woman lived in the Garden of Eden, a perfect place. God told Adam to take care of the garden and harvest fruit from any tree -- except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately, Satan, speaking through a serpenttricked Eve into eating the fruit.

She then took the fruit to Adam, who also ate it even though he knew it was wrong. As their punishment for disobeying God, Adam and Eve experienced both spiritual and physical death. In other religions, humans were created as mortals who tried, but failed, to achieve immortality. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells this story. A product of Mesopotamian literature, Gilgamesh was the son of a goddess and a human king.

Gilgamesh, however, remained just as mortal as any other man, including his best friend Enkidu. When Enkidu dies, the great hero becomes haunted by the prospect of death and sets out on a quest for immortality. His travels bring him to Utnapishtim, a human who has been allowed by the gods to live forever. Utnapishtim promises to grant Gilgamesh immortality if the hero can stay awake for a week.

Gilgamesh eventually falls asleep, but Utnapishtim still rewards him with a plant that has the power to rejuvenate its owner. On the journey home, a hungry snake devours the plant, ending any hope Gilgamesh has of becoming immortal. In Mesopotamian legend, Gilgamesh returns home and happily accepts his life as a mortal man. Most humans, however, aren't so easygoing.

We're troubled by the idea of our own mortality. Death is a constant shadow hanging over everything we do. Research bears this out.

Grim reaper q biography of abraham

A survey found that 20 percent of Americans aged 50 and older become frightened when they think about what happens to them when they die. Fifty-three percent believe in the existence of spirits or ghosts; 73 percent in life after death [source: AARP ]. Clearly, what happens as we die, as well as what happens after we die, is a major concern, as it has been for thousands of years.

To make sense of dying and mortality, humans rely on a tried-and-true method: They give death a form they recognize. This turns an abstract, invisible phenomenon into something real and tangible. If you look at death and see a familiar face, you can understand it. If you look at death and see a kind, gentle face, even better -- you can put aside your fears.

Of course, it can work the other way. You can find a terrifying countenance when you look upon death. As we'll see in the next section, the frightening face of the Grim Reaper evolved after a particularly difficult time in human history. Thanatos was the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and both were portrayed as young, pleasant men.

In some illustrations, Thanatos appears with wings and an extinguished flame. His job was to accompany the departed to Hadesthe Greek underworld. There, Thanatos would deliver the souls to Charon, the ferryman on the River Styx. In this version, death isn't ugly and frightening, but attractive and helpful. In Norse mythologythe Valkyries were beautiful young women who served both as Odin's messengers and as escorts to the souls of warriors killed in battle.

In fact, Valkyries means "choosers of the slain. Then they would transport these souls to Valhalla, Odin's hall. Once in the afterlife, the brave souls were enlisted to fight in the battle of Ragnarok, an apocalyptic conflict signaling the end of the world. In some stories, angels carry messages to mortals or protect them from harm.

In other stories, they interact with the deceased, tormenting those who have sinned.