EDIT: Now you got me wondering how you could rape a soul. Is it ghost fucking, like Ghostbusters? Probably not the best example but it's what came to mind.
Well, they also cut down overgrown flora and grasses. In there lies a metaphor about humans being a pestilence to every other thing in proximity trying to survive.
The scythe as an artistic symbol of death has deliberate agricultural associations since the medieval period due to the importance of farming and seasons. The tool symbolizes the removal of human souls from their bodies in huge numbers, with the analogy being to a farmer (reaper) cutting through large swaths of grain crops during harvest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Reaper
Edit: Death personified as someone harvesting is a very old metaphor:
For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them. Jeremia 9, 21-22
Linking the agricultural cycle of planting, growing, harvest with the human lifecycle is a very common metaphor.
We see this in the myth of persephone, where going into the underworld and returning (ie death and rebirth) is a metaphor for the harvest cycle. Greek mystery cults were all over this too and it's likely a pre-greek remnant from the Early European Farmers who inhabited the area before steppe-descended greek speakers began moving in.
So the association of death and harvesting probably starts fairly early.
When scythes were invented, they were a very hot, new, efficient tool. Previously they only had some curved had knifes and had to harvest every few bits of wheat individually, but with a scythe you could take those wide swings and get lots of wheat at once.
Think of it as going from a handgun revolver to a machine gun, except in a way that a medieval peasant would understand.
To add to this, the image of the grim reaper carrying a scythe first started showing up during the bubonic plague in Europe, where people were dying en masse.
even better: Mowing with a scythe lets you easily deposit the grain neatly in a row (windrow), which means you can just have one person hauling ass on the scythe and another behind them bundling up the straws.
It's honestly pretty insane how close to ideal scythe harvesting is.
grim reaper, Death also has the touch of death, they can instantly simply by touching or imagining it. also other things, could be controlling the forces of nature
28 Comments
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 148 pts · 4d
Scythes reap grain.
The grim reaper uses it to reap souls.
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca · 70 pts · 4d
That's grim.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 6 pts · 4d
At least the E is after the R and not the P.
BassTurd@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 4d
That's a different guy, he goes by POTUS.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
It's before the A.
EDIT: Now you got me wondering how you could rape a soul. Is it ghost fucking, like Ghostbusters? Probably not the best example but it's what came to mind.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 1 pts · 4d
lol oops. That was supposed to be an R.
MrShankles@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 3d
Beverly Crusher is the expert, I would defer to her
saltesc@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 4d
Well, they also cut down overgrown flora and grasses. In there lies a metaphor about humans being a pestilence to every other thing in proximity trying to survive.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 2d
mmm ecofascism mmmm
Zonetrooper@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 4d
"What can the harvest hope for, if not the care of the reaper man?"
DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 4d
Can't beat Pratchett when it comes to wise words.
tektite@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 4d
[It's a Mr. Death or something; he's come about the reaping??
I don't think we need any at the moment...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0frHw-7J4Mk)
sixty@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 4d
KOLANAKI
5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org · 39 pts · 4d
Because he is reaping the souls.
Edit: Death personified as someone harvesting is a very old metaphor:
Hegar@fedia.io · 20 pts · 4d
Linking the agricultural cycle of planting, growing, harvest with the human lifecycle is a very common metaphor.
We see this in the myth of persephone, where going into the underworld and returning (ie death and rebirth) is a metaphor for the harvest cycle. Greek mystery cults were all over this too and it's likely a pre-greek remnant from the Early European Farmers who inhabited the area before steppe-descended greek speakers began moving in.
So the association of death and harvesting probably starts fairly early.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 3d
Isn't "reap" an agricultural term to begin with? "You reap what you sow"?
andyburke@fedia.io · 12 pts · 4d
We are the wheat.
jim_v@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
We are the children. 🎶
anistorian@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d
We are the ones who make a writer gay
Battle_Masker@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 3d
We are DEVO
it_depends_man@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 4d
When scythes were invented, they were a very hot, new, efficient tool. Previously they only had some curved had knifes and had to harvest every few bits of wheat individually, but with a scythe you could take those wide swings and get lots of wheat at once.
Think of it as going from a handgun revolver to a machine gun, except in a way that a medieval peasant would understand.
thomasloven@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3d
To add to this, the image of the grim reaper carrying a scythe first started showing up during the bubonic plague in Europe, where people were dying en masse.
leds@feddit.dk · 2 pts · 3d
Also scythes are stupidly sharp, could have been a lot of lethal accidents at the time giving them an association with death?
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 2d
even better: Mowing with a scythe lets you easily deposit the grain neatly in a row (windrow), which means you can just have one person hauling ass on the scythe and another behind them bundling up the straws.
It's honestly pretty insane how close to ideal scythe harvesting is.
eurodyne@piefed.world · 11 pts · 4d
for reaping
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org · 8 pts · 4d
It separates grass from ground, and heads from bodies. Wooosh!
frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io · 5 pts · 4d
As ye have sown so shall ye reap!
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 4d
grim reaper, Death also has the touch of death, they can instantly simply by touching or imagining it. also other things, could be controlling the forces of nature