InGreek mythology, theKeres (/ˈkɪriːz/;Ancient Greek: Κῆρες) were female death-spirits. They were the goddesses who personified violent death and who were drawn to bloody deaths on battlefields.[citation needed] Although they were present during death and dying, they did not have the power to kill. All they could do was wait and then feast on the dead. The Keres were daughters ofNyx, and as such the sisters of beings such asMoirai, who controlled the fate of souls, andThanatos, the god of peaceful death. Some later authorities, such asCicero, called them by a Latin name,Tenebrae ("the Darknesses"), and named them daughters ofErebus and Nyx.
The singular form of the name isKer (/ˈkɜr/; Κήρ), which, according toHesiod, refers to an entity distinct from the Keres.[1] Ancient sources seldom distinguish or enumerate the Keres, describing them instead as a vast and host. In theIliad, they are portrayed as "thousands" (myriai) in number. Mimnermus, however, speaks of only two "one bringing old age, the other death".[2] Quintus Smyrnaeus similarly mentions "twin Keres, one dark, one bright".[3]
The Greek wordκήρ means "the goddess of death" or "doom"[4][5] and appears as a proper noun in the singular and plural as Κήρ and Κῆρες to refer to divinities.Homer usesΚῆρες in the phraseκήρες θανάτοιο, "Keres of death". By extension the word may mean "plague, disease" and in prose "blemish or defect". The relative verbκεραΐζω orκείρω means "ravage or plunder".[6] Sometimes in Homer the words κήρ andmoira have similar meanings. The older meaning was probably "destruction of the dead", andHesychius of Alexandria relates the word to the verbκηραινειν "decay".[7]
And Nyx (Night) bare hateful Moros (Doom) and black Ker (Violent Death) and Thanatos (Death), and she bareHypnos (Sleep) and the tribe ofOneiroi (Dreams). And again the goddess murky Nyx, though she lay with none, bare Momus (Blame) and painfulOizys (Misery), and theHesperides ... Also she bare the Moirai (Fates) and the ruthlessavenging Keres (Death-Fates) ... Also deadly Nyx bare Nemesis (Revenge) to afflict mortal men, and after her,Apate (Deceit) andPhilotes (Friendship) and hatefulGeras (Old Age) and hard-heartedEris (Strife).
They were described as dark beings with gnashing teeth and claws and with a thirst for human blood. They would hover over the battlefield and search for dying and wounded men. A description of the Keres can be found in the Shield of Heracles (248–57):
The black Dooms gnashing their white teeth, grim-eyed, fierce, bloody, terrifying fought over the men who were dying for they were all longing to drink dark blood. As soon as they caught a man who had fallen or one newly wounded, one of them clasped her great claws around him and his soul went down toHades, to chillyTartarus. And when they had satisfied their hearts with human blood, they would throw that one behind them and rush back again into the battle and the tumult.
A parallel, and equally unusual personification of "the baleful Ker" is in Homer's depiction of theShield of Achilles (Iliad, ix. 410ff), which is the model for theShield of Heracles. These are works of art that are being described.
In the fifth century, Keres were portrayed as small winged sprites in vase-paintings adduced by J.E. Harrison (Harrison, 1903), who described apotropaic rites and rites of purification that were intended to keep the Keres at bay.
According to a statement ofStesichorus noted byEustathius, Stesichorus "called the Keres by the nameTelchines", whom Eustathius identified with theKuretes of Crete, who could call up squalls of wind and would brew potions from herbs (noted in Harrison, p. 171).
The termKeres has also been cautiously used to describe a person's fate.[8] An example of this can be found in theIliad whereAchilles was given the choice (orKeres) between either a long and obscure life and home, or death at Troy and everlasting glory. Also, whenAchilles andHector were about to engage in a fight to the death, the godZeus weighed both warriors'keres to determine who shall die.[9] AsHector’sker was deemed heavier, he was the one destined to die and in theweighing of souls, Zeus chooses Hector to be killed.[10]During the festival known asAnthesteria, the Keres were driven away. Their Roman equivalents wereLetum (“death”) or theTenebrae (“shadows”).
Hunger, pestilence, madness, nightmare have each a sprite behind them;are all sprites," J.E. Harrison observed (Harrison 1903, p 169), but two Keres might not be averted, and these, which emerged from the swarm of lesser ills, were Old Age and Death. Odysseus says, "Death and the Ker avoiding, we escape" (Odyssey xii.158), where the two are not quite identical: Harrison (p. 175) found the Christian parallel "death and the angel of death.
Mathias Egeler suggests a connection exists between the Keres and theValkyries ofNorse mythology.[11] Both deities are war spirits that fly over battlefields during conflicts and choose those to be slain. The difference is that Valkyries are benevolent deities in contrast to the malevolence of the Keres, perhaps due to the different outlook of the two cultures towards war. The wordvalkyrie derives fromOld Norsevalkyrja (pluralvalkyrjur), which is composed of two words; the nounvalr (referring to the slain on the battlefield) and the verbkjósa (meaning "to choose"). Together, they mean "chooser of the slain".[12] The Greek word "Ker" etymologically means destruction, death.[13]
For us, as soon as pain comes to the head, there follows an evil fate grievous old age and death, two Keres.
And two Keres came from elsewhere, one dark, the other bright.
The dictionary definition ofKeres at Wiktionary