A Brief Discussion of the Morality of the Grim Reaper
psy·cho·pomp
/ˈsīkōˌpämp/
noun
noun: psychopomp; plural noun: psychopomps; noun: psychopompos; plural noun: psychopompoi
(in Greek mythology) a guide of souls to the place of the dead.
the spiritual guide of a living person's soul.
Death is universal. There’s no getting around it, really. Eventually, Death will arrive knocking at your front door, making sure its records are accurate, and whisk you away to the afterlife (which might not actually exist, but we’re going to make that assumption for this metaphorical discussion anyway, whatever, fuck off). In order to better understand and rationalize the phenomenon of death, a common trope in mythology is reimagining Death as a personified force. Death exists in many forms, depending on the culture one looks at. For instance, in Greek mythology, Thanatos is the personification of Death itself. In Hindu scripture, the lord of death, King Yama (or Yamaraja) rules over his court in hell, dispensing judgement to one’s mortal soul, which allows him to determine the condition into which souls reincarnate. The inevitability of Death and its all-encompassing nature has influenced and scared the shit out of people throughout history, resulting in many wacky ideas, from the Danse Macabre to Hell itself.
And speaking of Hell, discussions of Death often go hand in hand with the afterlife, the eventual residing place for all souls and further human consciousness. However, navigating through normal life is already difficult. The afterlife is a whole different ball game, where the rules of, you know, mortal existence don’t really apply. The journey to your soul’s resting place is a long, dangerous one, full of pitfalls and potential dead ends. The realm of the dead plays by different rules, rules that would be completely unrealizable to the recently not-alived. Surely, whatever entity that’s making you go through this whole dying ordeal doesn’t expect you to figure all this out yourself right?
Psychopomps exist in many forms throughout multiple different cultures and fulfill their duty by guiding the souls of the newly dead to their resting place in the afterlife. We’re talking Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead, and a sure favorite at parties. Charon, the Greek boatman of the river Styx, who will ferry you across the river for a gold coin. The Valkyries of Norse mythology select those who died in battle to serve as einherjar in the eternal frat party in the sky. All of these mythological entities are intimately tied to death and facilitate the passage of one’s mortal soul into the afterlife, but would any of these figures be considered morally reprehensible? Would one generally consider them to be, in fact, evil? I assume the answer is no here. It certainly is for me. Why, then, is pop-culture’s most prominent psychopomp so generally seen in such a negative light. I am of course speaking of the big scythe carryin’, black robe flowin’, mysteriously floatin’... Grim Reaper.
What I’m trying to say is that the Grim Reaper gets a bad rap. I mean, imagine if your spirit just up and yeets right out of your body; you’re a ghost floating over your corpse like “well damn,” and then this huge-robed skeleton looking dude with a scythe shows up. You’d probably be really scared at first, but then Big Grim starts talking, and it says “Hey, hate to tell you this, but you’re dead.” You’d most likely be pretty incredulous at the whole situation. I mean this kind of thing definitely would never happen to you in your life. Next thing you know, you’re yelling at big Grim with tears rolling down your face, talking about how you don’t want to go, and it’s all Grim’s fault. Seeing your reaction, now Grim is upset too, talking about how it’s just the job; it’s not like its his fault that you’re dead. It was just your time. Grim can’t put you back in your body, so instead, he extends his bony hand in an offer to walk you into the afterlife as your personal guide, and when you think about it, that’s honestly a very heartfelt move, coming from the reaper of souls. I know I’d hate to try and make my way to the afterlife by myself. I think it’s very sweet of Big Grim to try and help you make sense of the whole situation. Probably very jarring. I can understand the initial fear, the Grim Reaper doesn’t exactly look like the type of dude that would get invited to a lot of parties or anything, what with the giant grass cutter and ominous robe and everything. Either way, I think it’s important to define the Grim Reaper as the messenger of Death and not death itself. The Grim Reaper is only the guide for your soul on its eventual path, not your killer. Anyway, maybe I watched too much Billy and Mandy as a kid, but I think that the Grim Reaper gets a lot of unnecessary hate.