# Where does "the Grim Reaper" come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725 "2005-09-08T22:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/1 "2005-09-08T22:02:00Z")
The iconography I mean. You know, the skeleton covered with a shoddy, dirty peasant cloak, wielding a scythe. The deep, booming voice. Does this character hail from a specific vein of mythology? The skeleton obviously suggests the decay of the body after death, but what’s the symbolism of the cloak & scythe? When & where did this guy enter our collective consciousness? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/2 "2005-09-08T22:04:27Z")
The image is similar to Old Man Time, also equipped with scythe & hourglass. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/3 "2005-09-08T22:12:37Z")
Apparently the scythe is because death was related to the harvest. It was also associated with time, hence the similiarity with Father Time. [Cite](http://www.algocentral.com/pandora/thereaper.html) ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/4 "2005-09-08T22:38:44Z")
I’ll bet the cloak has something to do with how ghosts are often petrayed as wearing winding sheets(Sp?). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/5 "2005-09-09T00:20:11Z")
It goes at least back to the Black Death of medieval times (that is, the 1300s, I don’t mean the restaurant chain). Death was often depicted as a skeleton “harvesting” victims with a scythe–the cloak over the skeleton was just pretty much normal clothing of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/6 "2005-09-09T00:52:29Z")
Well, a reaper is someone who reaps grain by cutting it down with a sythe. Can’t be a reaper without a sythe! I mean, unless he used a combine, I suppose. But how gruesome would that be! :eek: There are plenty of New Testament passages that refer to the resurection of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked as a harvest, either metaphorically or allegorically. And of course, John Barleycorn was the personification of the harvested barley grain, who was cut down upon reaching maturity by the reapers’ sythes. Not much of a leap to imagine a supernatural reaper who cuts us down at the appointed time. Not surprisingly, Wikipedia has [an article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_reaper) on the Grim Reaper, though it does little to answer your question. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/7 "2005-09-09T00:53:49Z")
“This is Mr. Death. He’s a _Reaper!_” ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/8 "2005-09-09T01:29:45Z")
Oddly enough, I’ve seen some depictions of Death from Europe in the middle ages (I think) which showed him as a skeleton wielding an _arrow_, though no bow. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/9 "2005-09-09T08:32:41Z")
[This](http://death.monstrous.com/representations_of_death.htm#grim%20reaper) suggests the figure goes back to the ancient Greeks: > [@](#): > > In Greek mythology, Chronos (Cronus) was the king of titans and the father of Zeus. He was also a harvest god called Father Time and carried a sickle which is a tool used in harvesting grain. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/10 "2005-09-09T12:27:03Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > [This](http://death.monstrous.com/representations_of_death.htm#grim%20reaper) suggests the figure goes back to the ancient Greeks: Now we’re getting somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/11 "2005-09-09T13:42:38Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > “This is Mr. Death. He’s a _Reaper!_” But I didn’t \*have \* the salmon mousse! ---
**Author:** ![Oswald\_Bastable](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oswald_bastable/32/214_2.png) [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/12 "2005-09-09T14:27:48Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > It goes at least back to the Black Death of medieval times (that is, the 1300s, I don’t mean the restaurant chain). You have a restaurant chain called Black Death! You Americans are funny… 😛 OB ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/13 "2005-09-09T14:29:14Z")
> [@Oswald Bastable](#): > > You have a restaurant chain called Black Death! You Americans are funny… 😛 > > OB I’d eat at “Black Death” before I’d eat at “Medieval Times . . .” ---
**Author:** ![Corporate\_Hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/65b543/32.png) [@Corporate\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corporate_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/14 "2005-09-09T14:48:18Z")
_“You might be a king or a little street sweeper, but sooner or later you’ll dance with the reaper.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/15 "2005-09-09T14:48:40Z")
[Cronus and his scythe](http://www.mythology.com/cronus.html) [Images of the Reaperman from the 1500s](http://www.mythology.com/grimreaperpics.html) [Durer’s _Knight, Death, and Devil_](http://www.abcgallery.com/D/durer/durer1.html) (1513) showing a robed Death with an hourglass. [Death as a mounted hunter and as a reaper.](http://www.abcgallery.com/D/durer/durer1.html) From Der Ackerman aus Böhmen (The Ploughman from Bohemia), Bamberg, 1463. ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/16 "2005-09-09T14:59:09Z")
As **Shirley Ujest** once said: “Black Death! That is racist! Where is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Where is White Death or Yellow Death or Latte Colored Death? The rest of the world demands to have a terrible plague named after their skin color!” From this thread: > **[Do You Suffer From an Imbalance of Bodily Humours?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=259446)** > > I’m reading a new book about everyday life in Elizabethan London, and—predictably—the chapter on medicine is the most hilariously horrifying. Bed-wetting can be treated by “the stones of a hedgehog, powdered,” “pigeon’s dung” for shingles, and for... ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/17 "2005-09-09T15:16:53Z")
> [@Rufus Xavier](#): > > As **Shirley Ujest** once said: > > “Black Death! That is racist! Where is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Where is White Death or Yellow Death or Latte Colored Death? The rest of the world demands to have a terrible plague named after their skin color!” [White Death](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0814719279/002-6540149-3892859?v=glance) (tuberculosis) [Yellow Death](http://www.site-webmaster.com/literature/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi/life-on-the-mississippi-137.php) (yellow fever) Dunno about Latte-colored Death. ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/18 "2005-09-09T15:23:19Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Dunno about Latte-colored Death. That’s commonly understood to be a work hazard for Starbucks employees. 🙂 -rainy ---
**Author:** ![Alistair\_McCello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Alistair\_McCello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alistair_McCello)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/19 "2005-09-09T16:13:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Oddly enough, I’ve seen some depictions of Death from Europe in the middle ages (I think) which showed him as a skeleton wielding an arrow, though no bow. This is just a guess but I would assume that the arrow refers back to Greek mythology when the arrows fired from Apollo’s bow would bring disease. I want to say that the name of the bow was ‘Toxos’, where we get Toxin et al from, but I can’t seem to find a cite for that. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725/20 "2005-09-09T17:25:52Z")
> [@Alistair McCello](#): > > This is just a guess but I would assume that the arrow refers back to Greek mythology when the arrows fired from Apollo’s bow would bring disease. I want to say that the name of the bow was ‘Toxos’, where we get Toxin et al from, but I can’t seem to find a cite for that. Per [Etymonline](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=toxic), _toxin_ comes to us from _toxon_, meaning “bow”. Not a specific bow, just bow. I did find several references to _Argurotoxos_ as an epithet for Apollo, meaning having or using a silver bow. Most of the references seem to be pulling the info from the same source, but I can’t id where that is. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-grim-reaper-come-from/320725.md?page=2)