Psychopomp

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Many sets of religious beliefs have a particular spirit, deity, demon or angel whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife, such as Heaven or Hell. These creatures are called psychopomps, from the Greek word ψυχοπομπóς (psychopompos), literally meaning the "guide of souls". They were often associated with horses, whippoorwills, ravens, dogs, crows, owls, sparrows, harts, and dolphins.

In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a wise man (or woman), or sometimes as a helpful animal. In some cultures, acting as a psychopompos was also one of the functions of a shaman. This could include not only acompanying the soul of the dead, but also vice versa: to help at birth, to introduce the newborn's soul to the world (p. 36 of ^[1]).

[edit] List by mythology

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Epona^{[citation needed]}

Ogmios

Ankou

[edit] Christianity/Christian mythology

Michael

Saint Peter^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Egyptian mythology

[edit] English mythology

Waetla

[edit] Etruscan mythology

Turms

The Barque of Charon, Sleep, Night and Morpheus, by Luca Giordano

[edit] Greek mythology

Artemis^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Hindu mythology

Agni

Pushan

Yama^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Inuit mythology

Anguta

Pinga

[edit] Islam/Islamic mythology

Azrael

Nakir and Munkar

[edit] Japanese mythology

Shinigami

[edit] Judaism/Jewish mythology

Gabriel

Sandalphon

[edit] Maya mythology

Ixtab

Valkyries of Norse mythology, as depicted by Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1869

[edit] Norse mythology

Baldur

Odin

Valkyries

[edit] Persian mythology

Mithra

[edit] Polynesian mythology

Aumakua

[edit] Roman mythology

Mercury

[edit] Slavic mythology

Volos

[edit] Vodun

Guédé

[edit] Zoroastrianism

Vohu Mano

[edit] Literature

Compare Virgil's role in Dante’s Inferno.

In modern literature, the title character of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is said to act as a guide for children: “At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him; as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened.”

Sparrows as psychopomps play a notable role in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

^ Hoppál, Mihály: Sámánok Eurázsiában. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2005. ISBN 9630582953. (The title means “Shamans in Eurasia”, the book is written in Hungarian, but it is published also in German, Estonian and Finnish.) Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian).

[edit] References and further reading

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Categories: Articles which may contain original research | Articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements | Deities, spirits, and mythic beings | Mythological archetypes