10 Symbols Of Death And Their Meanings
Are you looking for symbols of death?
Every person born eventually dies. Death is inevitable and inescapable; it knows no genders and social status, religions or races. This makes death or dying such an important aspect in every human society that has ever existed.
Death has become the focus of various customs and traditions in all cultures around the world, part of which are the symbolic portrayals of this phenomenon in an attempt to have a clear meaning of it.
10 Symbols Of Death And Their Meanings
Here are the most common symbols of death used in various cultures around the world.
1. Skull
The skull is one of the most common symbols of death, mortality, and the impossibility of attaining eternal life.
This tradition of using the skull as a symbol of death dates back to the early beginning of the Hindu culture some 50,000 years ago.
Negative connotations usually entail the skull symbol, especially in earlier times. For centuries past, skulls have symbolized omens and warnings, as well as a reminder of the futility of worldly pleasures against mortality.
The skull symbol is part of various cultures all over the world, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. Both have employed the skull symbol in art and depictions of deities.
Today, young people – even the not-so-young – consider the skull symbol as fashionable, wearing it as an accessory or body art and other decorative items.
2. Skeleton
As with the skull, the skeleton is also thought to be a sign of dead, as well as warning or omen both in dreams and in waking life.
This is not always the case, however. Some cultures – Korean and ancient Aztec, for instance – consider skeletons to be symbolic of rebirth and even fortune. For them, skeleton is the bridge that connects life and death, symbolic of leaving the old and moving toward rebirth.
3. Grim Reaper
The Grim Reaper is a personification of death depicted in art, literature, and movies as a cloaked skeleton wielding a large razor-sharp scythe. According to tradition, his long black cloak and large scythe inflict fear into whoever captures a glimpse of him.
The Grim Reaper symbol has always denoted death or taking of lives the way crops are reaped with a scythe or a sickle.
4. Scythe
Scythe, as with the Grim Reaper, symbolizes “reaping of life.”
The scythe is a symbol of Death taking of lives and reaping of souls like a farmer harvesting crops in his field. The scythe is associated with Cronus, the Greek god of harvest who carried such tool used in harvesting grain. The Grim Reaper carrying a scythe is derived from this myth.
The scythe symbol, just like the Grim Reaper, has always represented death. People across various cultures believe that their end is coming when a scythe decides to glean them.
4. Coffin
Coffins are long, narrow funerary boxes in which dead persons are kept or displayed before they are buried or cremated.
The coffin symbol signifies death, funeral, bereavement, or sadness over a loss. It also symbolizes ending of a phase of one’s life.
There are cultures that view the coffin with other symbolic meanings. In the Hindu culture, for instance, this symbol represents the Self. For Christians, it is representative of eternal life.
Ancient Greeks believed that coffins symbolize the womb the deceased would be reborn from. It was the same for ancient Egyptians who viewed the sarcophagus as a symbol of rebirth. They often painted the inside of the lid with the image of the sky goddess Nut, “vault of the heavens,” to embrace the dead on their journey toward their rebirth.
5. Crossbones and Skull
The crossbones and skull symbol is depicted as two long bones crossed together under a skull. This depiction has represented death since the Late Middle Ages, often used as a memento mori on gravestones.
In modern times, the crossbones and skull is also employed as a hazard symbol for poisons. And because of its historical use in Jolly Roger flags, the crossbones and skull symbol is now also linked with piracy and software piracy.
6. Mummy
A mummy is the body of a human being or animal that has been ceremonially preserved by the ancient Egyptian method of removing the internal organs and treating with natron and resin, and then wrapping in bandages.
Similar to the coffin or sarcophagus, the mummy symbol represents death and sorrow or bereavement.
7. Theta Nigrum (Black Theta)
The theta nigrum or “black theta” is also called the theta infelix or “unlucky theta.” It is an ancient symbol consisting of a circle with a diagonal line.
In ancient times, this symbol was used to denote Thanatos, the Greek god of death. This is seen in in Greek and Latin inscriptions where the theta nigrum is mentioned as a symbol of death.
8. La Calavera Catrina
A festive symbol of Mexico’s Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), La Calavera Catrina – or simply La Catrina – is otherwise known as Catrina La Calavera Garbancera. The name means “Dapper Skeleton” or “Elegant Skull.”
La Catrina was created by Mexican cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada in the early 1910s, made popular by Diego Rivera in the late 1940s. La Catrina has become the symbolic image of Death in Mexico since and is now a famous icon of the Día de Muertos.
9. Vulture
Vultures are birds of prey that scavenge on carcasses of other animals, feeding on the dead flesh. These birds are recognized as symbols of death across the globe.
Ancient Egyptians viewed the vulture symbol as representative of the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. This belief was based on the vultures’ ability to transform death into life by means of feeding on dead flesh and wastes.
Ancient eastern cultures also associated vultures with death as these birds played an important role in sky burials. This funeral practice involved placing a dead person’s body on a mountaintop to decompose while being eaten by scavenging animals – vultures and other carrion birds in particular.
10. Crow
Crows have always been a symbol of death and dying. They are associated with bad omens, often viewed as bearers of tragic news – of the death of someone, usually.
Just like vultures, crows are carrion birds that feed on the dead. This led people from ancient times to see the crows as an embodiment of death and lost souls, as well as the reincarnation of these souls.
