Death
Ah Puchdeity of doom; represented as bloated corpse or skeleton. [Maya Myth.: Leach, 30]
gaunt driver of spectral cart; collects the dead. [Brittany Folklore: Leach, 62]
god and guardian of the dead. [Ancient Egyptian Rel.: Parrinder, 10]
angel of death’s way of summoning dead. [Islamic Myth.: Jobes, 129]
Bundren family ordeal after Addie’s death. [Am. Lit.: Faulkner As I Lay Dying]
bloom growing in Hades. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 37]
Fate who cuts thread of life. [Gk. and Rom. Myth.: Hall, 302]
angel of death; separates the soul from the body. [Islamic Myth.: Walsh Classical, 41]
female specter, harbinger of death. [Irish and Welsh Myth.: Walsh Classical, 45]
passing bell; rung to indicate demise. [Christian Tradition: Jobes, 198]
Western color for mourning. [Christian Color Symbolism: Leach, 242; Jobes, 357]
gray specter; equivalent to Irish banshee. [Scot. Myth.: Walsh Classical, 45]
god whose cauldron restored dead to life. [Welsh Myth.: Jobes, 241]
six dead soldiers cause a rebellion when they refuse to be buried. [Am. Drama: Haydn & Fuller, 768]
(Golgotha) where Christ was crucified. [N.T.: Luke 23:33]
goddess of violent death. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 75]
god of death. [Etruscan Myth.: Jobes, 315]
the worm ultimately vanquishes man in grave. [Am. Lit.: “Ligeia” in Tales of Terror]
Holbein woodcut, one of many medieval examples of the death motif. [Eur. Culture: Bishop, 363-367]
Dance of Death; procession of all on their way to the grave. [Art: Osborne, 299–300, 677]
“I am become like dust and ashes.” [O.T.: Job 30:19]
blind and chair-bound, Hamm learns that nearly everybody has died; his own parents are dying in separate trash cans. [Anglo-Fr. Drama: Beckett Endgame in Weiss, 143]
goddess of death; consort of Nergal. [Sumerian and Akkadian Myth.: Parrinder, 93]
Roman Catholic sacrament given to a person in danger of dying. [Christianity: RHD, 506]
dying in childbirth, welcomed by the other spirits in the graveyard, she tries to relive her twelfth birthday. [Am. Drama: Thornton Wilder Our Town in Benét, 747]
name given to personification of death. [Pop. Culture: Misc.]
symbol of mortality. [Folklore: Jobes, 486]
symbol of agents of destruction. [Christian Tradition: N.T.: Revelation 6; Mercatante, 65]
afflicted with cancer, he becomes irritable, visits many doctors, gradually disintegrates, and dies almost friendless. [Russ. Lit.: Tolstoy The Death of Ivan Ilyitch in Magill III, 256]
Hindu goddess to whom Thug sacrificed victims. [Hinduism: Brewer Dictionary, 600]
rag dealer dies spectacularly and horribly of “spontaneous combustion.” [Br. Lit.: Dickens Bleak House]
“saintly soul floats on the Stygian river.” [Am. Lit.: “Lenore” in Hart, 468]
showing man’s consciousness and fear of dying. [Br. Lit.: Lord of the Flies]
spirits of the dead. [Rom. Rel.: Leach, 672]
ancient Roman goddess of the dead. [Rom. Myth.: Zimmerman, 159]
dark, cold region to which were sent those who died of disease or old age. [Scand. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary 642]
identified with mortality. [Animal Symbolism: Mercatante, 163]
an old man chases “Death” up a tree and keeps him there until the old man is ready to die. [Am. Drama: Sobel, 517]
fourth horse of Apocolypse, ridden by Death personified. [N.T.: Revelation 7:7–8]
seeking to slay death, three rioters are told he is under a certain tree; there they find gold and kill each other over it. [Br. Lit.: Chaucer “The Pardoner’s Tale” in Canterbury Tales]
religious mass (music or spoken) for the dead. [Christianity: Payton, 568]
when Death wins the toss of the dice, the two hundred crew members drop dead. [Br. Poetry: Coleridge “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”]
yellow robe worn going to the stake during Inquisition. [Span. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 948]
carried by the personification of death, used to cut life short. [Art.: Hall, 276]
visual representation of death. [Western Folklore: Cirlot, 298]
representation of body’s dissolution. [Christian Symbolism: Appleton, 92]
symbolizing mortality; sign on poison bottles. [World Culture: Brewer Dictionary, 1009]
river which must be crossed to enter Hades. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 259]
(Mors) god of death; brother of Somnos (sleep). [Gk. Myth.: Gayley, 54]
record-keeper of the dead. [Egyptian Myth.: Leach, 1109]
in hypnotic trance, recounts impressions from other side of death. [Am. Lit.: “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” in Portable Poe, 268–280]
Eucharist given to one who is dying. [Christianity: Brewer Dictionary, 1128]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Death
the cessation of the vital functions of an organism and the ensuing end of its life as an individual. Death is accompanied by the decomposition of proteins and other biopolymers, which are the principal material substrate of life. Modern views of dialectic materialism on the subject of death are based on the following idea expressed by F. Engels: “One can no longer consider scientific a physiology that does not regard death as an essential aspect of life … or realize that the negation of life is an essential component of life: life must always be viewed in relation to its inevitable and immanent property—death” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 20, p. 610).
Sometimes the concept of partial death is proposed, that is, the death of a group of cells or of an organ or part of an organ. In unicellular organisms, or protozoa, the natural death of an individual is manifested by division; when the individual ceases its existence, two new individuals come into being to take its place. In the case of other organisms, death marks the definitive conclusion of the organism’s life, usually leading to the formation of a corpse.
In higher animals and man, death is termed natural or physiological when it results from prolonged, gradual extinction of the organism’s main vital functions. Premature, or pathological, death results from disease or from lesions of such vital organs as the brain, heart, lungs, and liver. Premature death may be sudden; it may occur within a few minutes or even seconds, as in myocardial infarction. Violent death may be caused by an accident, suicide, or murder.
The death of warm-blooded animals and man is caused mainly by the cessation of respiration and blood circulation. The two main stages of death are, successively, clinical death and biological or true death. Complete restoration of vital functions is possible during clinical death, but biological death involves an irreversible cessation of physiological processes in the cells and tissues. The discipline of thanatology studies the processes associated with death.
REFERENCES
Metchnikoff, E. Etiudy optimizma, 4th ed. Moscow, 1917.
Shmal’gauzen, I. I. Problema smerti i bessmertiia. Moscow-Leningrad, 1926.
Il’in, N. A. Sovremennaia nauka o zhizni i smerti. Kishinev, 1955.
Lunts, A. M. “Ob evoliutsii smerti v sviazi s evoliutsiei razmnozheniia.” Zhurnal obshchei biologii, 1961, vol. 22, no. 2.
Policard, A., and M. Bessis. Elementy patologii kletki. Moscow, 1970. (Translated from French.)The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.