Image: Wikimedia Commons

Death

Personification of death

Entitymythical creature stock character personificationQ161936

Also known as Grim Reaper · the Grim Reaper · Reaper

Instance of: mythical creature
, stock character
, personification
Subclass of: personification
, psychopomp
, literary character
Part of: Death and the Maiden
, danse macabre
Founded: 12th century BCE

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Personifications of death are found in many religions and mythologies. In more modern stories, a character known as the Grim Reaper causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other beliefs hold that the spectre of death is only a psychopomp, a benevolent figure who serves to gently sever the last ties between the soul and the body, and to guide the deceased to the afterlife, without having any control over when or how the victim dies. Death is most often personified in male form, although in certain cultures death is perceived as female. Death is also portrayed as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Most claims of its appearance occur in states of near-death.

Overview

All data

85 statements · 5% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Manifestation of: death
Present in work: Death’s Ramble released: June 9, 1827
Because I could not stop for Death released: 1890
Der Tod und das Mädchen released: 1774
Death
O Death released: 1913
The Garden of Paradise released: 1839
The Haunted House released: 1929
Everyman released: 1913
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The Great Physician released: 1913 · performer: Charles Stanton Ogle
Destiny released: 1915
The Ancient Mariner released: 1925
Said to be the same as: Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse
Thanatos
Mot
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
Grim Reaper
Depicted by: Death and the Maiden (Baldung)(1517) image: Gw11 0001031 20170619 001 Baldung Der Tod und das Maedchen.jpg
Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych(1440) image: Jan van Eyck Diptych Crucifixion Right Detail 1.jpg
Partially coincident with: angel of death
death deity
Grim Reaper or other personification of death in a work of fiction
Pesta
living skeleton
Different from: Grim Reaper
Mr Death criterion used: descriptive page and disambiguation page have to be in different items
Represents: death
Item operated: sickle

On other databases

28 identifiers linking Death across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

externally sourced

Source last edited November 2, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). Death (Q161936). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/death-Q161936