Keres- Greek RaceRace"Death-spirits"
Also known as: Κῆρες, Κήρ, Ker, Kēres, and Kēr
Description
Gnashing teeth and blood-drenched cloaks sweep the battlefield as these death-spirits drag the wounded toward their end, fighting among themselves over fallen warriors and drinking the black blood from open wounds.
Mythology & Lore
Children of Night
The Keres emerge in Hesiod's Theogony among the brood of Nyx, born without a father alongside Moros (Doom), Thanatos (Death), and Hypnos (Sleep) (Theogony 211-217). They are not spinners who allot the thread of life, nor gentle escorts of the dying. They are the takers, the ones who drag the wounded into darkness.
The Battlefield Swarm
Their fullest scene comes in the Shield of Heracles. Dark-cloaked and terrible, they swarm the field of battle with gnashing white teeth and long hooked claws. They seize the wounded and the freshly fallen, sinking their claws into flesh and drinking the black blood. They fling aside the emptied bodies and plunge back into the fray for more (Shield of Heracles 248-257).
In the Iliad, Homer uses ker differently: as a personal doom that attends each warrior. When Zeus lifts his golden scales to weigh the keres of Achilles and Hector before their final duel, it is the weight of each man's death that tilts the balance. Hector's ker sinks toward Hades, and Apollo abandons him (Iliad 22.209-213).