Also called Letum, Thanatos (Greek).
Their story
Mors was death personified, counted by Cicero among the children of Night and Erebus. Virgil places Letum among the terrors at the entrance of the underworld, with Grief, Disease, Fear and Sleep, the kinsman of Death. Romans had no temple to Mors, but the figure appears in poetry and in Stoic reflection. Horace writes that pale Death knocks with equal foot at the huts of the poor and the towers of kings.
Best times to give to them
- Parentalia, 13 to 21 February
- At a funeral or after a death
What they like being given
- A candle
- Cypress or rosemary
- Silence
How to honour them
- Reflect on mortality to value life more, as Stoics advised.
- Light a candle for the recently dead.
- Do not call on death; honour it from a distance.
How they can help you
- Accepting mortality
- Grief
- Living fully
Symbols
- inverted torch
- butterfly
- wings
- sword
Mors is grammatically feminine in Latin and sometimes shown as female.
Sources
- Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.44
- Virgil, Aeneid 6
- Horace, Odes 1.4
More Roman gods
- Jupiter Best and greatest, guardian of Rome
- Mars Father of Rome and guardian of fields
- Mercury Patron of merchants, messages and journeys
- Janus Two-faced god of doors and beginnings
- Saturn King of the golden age and lord of the harvest
- Sol Invictus The unconquered sun, reborn at midwinter
- Neptune Lord of fresh water and the sea
- Vulcan God of fire, both destroying and forging