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Many religious belief systems have a particular spirit, deity, demon or angel whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife, such as Heaven or Hell. These creatures are called psychopomps, from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός (psychopompos), literally meaning the "guide of souls". They were often associated with horses, whippoorwills, ravens, dogs, crows, owls, sparrows, harts, and dolphins.

In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a wise man (or woman), or sometimes as a helpful animal. In some cultures acting as a psychopompos was also one of the functions of a shaman. This could include not only accompanying the soul of the dead, but also vice versa: to help at birth, to introduce the newborn's soul to the world (p. 36 of ^[1]).

Contents 1 List by mythology 1.1 Celtic mythology 1.2 Egyptian mythology 1.3 English mythology 1.4 Etruscan mythology 1.5 Greek mythology 1.6 Hindu mythology 1.7 Inuit mythology 1.8 Islamic mythology 1.9 Japanese mythology 1.10 Judaism 1.11 Maya mythology 1.12 Norse mythology 1.13 Persian mythology 1.14 Polynesian mythology 1.15 Roman mythology 1.16 Slavic mythology 1.17 Vodun 1.18 Zoroastrianism 1.19 Other 2 Fiction 3 See also 4 Notes 4.1 References and further reading

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Manannán mac Lir

Belatu-Cadros (especially Wales)

Epona^{[citation needed]}

Ogmios

Ankou

Santa Compaña

Gwyn ap Nudd

Anubis

Neith

Horus

Set

Thoth

Waetla

Turms

Artemis^{[citation needed]}

Charon

Hermes

Thanatos

Hypnos

Morpheus

The Keres

Agni

Budha

Pushan

Yama^{[citation needed]}

Anguta

Pinga

Azrael

Nakir and Munkar

Shinigami

Gabriel

Sandalphon

Ixtab

Baldur

Odin

Valkyries

Mithra

Aumakua

Mercury

Volos

Guédé

Vohu Mano

Grim Reaper

Compare Virgil's role in Dante’s Inferno.

George Lass and the other reapers on the Showtime series Dead Like Me are more accurately described as psychopomps, as they do not actually kill people but instead remove their souls moments before death and escort them to the afterlife.

The Reapers of the TV series Supernatural act as psychopomps.

In the TV series Reaper, the character Sam Oliver acts as a psychopomp, capturing and returning escaped souls to Hell on behalf of the devil.

In modern literature, the title character of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is said to act as a guide for children: “At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him; as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened.”

Whipporwills feature prominently as malign psychopomps in many works of H. P. Lovecraft, perhaps most notably in The Dunwich Horror.

Sparrows as psychopomps play a notable role in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.

The Shinigami of the manga and anime series Bleach act as psychopomps.

In Northern Lights Yambe Akka serves as a guide to dead or dying witches, taking them peacefully to the underworld.

Enma Ai of the anime series Jigoku Shoujo acts as a psychopomp, ferrying grudged-upon souls to Hell.

Death is one of many psychopomp characters in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. Lucifer the Morningstar is another psychopomp and refers to himself as one when he kills the Shiko-Mi demon in the second story arc. Issue 52 also revolves around a psychopomp. In this story, the kingdom of Faerie does not wish a possible allegiance of men, and Titania (the Queen of the Faeries) sends her envoy Cluracan to the city of Aurelia, which is ruled by a psychopomp, to disrupt any such pact.

In the LucasArts game Grim Fandango, the player plays as a "travel agent" (psychopomp) named Manny Calavera, guiding people from the Land of the Dead safely to the afterlife.

At the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Will Turner becomes a psychopomp by becoming the captain of the Flying Dutchman in order to guide the souls of men who died at sea to the land of the dead, a job previously tasked to but neglected by Davy Jones.

In the final episode of Six Feet Under Nathanial and Nate Fisher serve as psychopomps for Ruth Fisher, while Keith Charles-Fisher serves as one for his husband, David.

In the DC comics universe, speedsters are led to the afterlife (or in this case, Speed Force) by a psychopomp known as the Black Flash.

1. ^ Hoppál, Mihály: Sámánok Eurázsiában. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2005. ISBN 963-05-8295-3. (The title means “Shamans in Eurasia”, the book is written in Hungarian, but it is published also in German, Estonian and Finnish.) Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian).

• Eliade, Mircea, "Shamanism", 1964, Chapters 6 and 7, "Magical Cures: the Shaman as Psychopomp".