About Ker
Ker, (Gr. Κήρ, plural Keres, Κῆρες) is the ancient Death Goddess of Violent Fate, who was known to the Greeks in Homeric times and earlier. Within the Hellenic world, her name was taken to mean "violent death", "fate", and "choice" or "chooser". It was She who held dominion over those felled violently, in battle and otherwise; men and women who met their mortal ends in bloodshed. Within the Hellenic cosmology She is described as being a daughter of Nyx Protogenoi -- Night itself -- who is one of the primordial beings that emerged in the time before the Gods. Ker, as with her sisters the Moirae -- (Gr. Μοῖραι) -- was known to exist outside the laws and structures of the world, woven into the fabric and thread of that which the world was built upon.
A complex Deity who appears in both singular and plural form (Ker and Keres), she is associated with black-winged carrion birds (especially ravens and old-world vultures) and has always been depicted and descripted as being stained with the blood of the violently fated mortals whose deliverance landed in her domain. In the fulfillment of her responsibilities, she utilizes a group of death spirits known -- confusingly -- as the keres (singular "ker"), who circle battlefields like blood-ravens waiting to gorge themselves on the freshly fallen in payment for transporting their souls through their Mistress' realms to whichever worlds they are destined for in the afterlife. To further confuse, there is also a system of Fate described by Homer, which measure's a person's "death fate" (or "ker") against that of an opponent, to determine the outcome of battles. The process of measuring these fates is known as Kerostasia, from which this website gains its name.
Her origins predate the rise of the Hellenic cultures, with signs pointing to the pre-Minoan Cretans as her first European worshipers. It seems that her interest in humans may have begun with a paleolithic group from North Africa, who migrated north to the Isle of Crete (situated 99 miles south of the Greek mainland, in the Aegean sea) in the earliest archeologically supported demonstration of a sea-crossing journey. Her earliest worship was received in the sacred caves found throughout the mountains of this small Mediterranean island.
Predating civilization (as it is currently defined) and even developed language, Ker is not -- nor has she ever been -- an easy Goddess to interact with. Her's is a primal will, an ancient manner, not easily understood in the context of even the early Greek civilizations, who primarily worshiped later Gods and Goddesses of agriculture, ruler-ship and developed culture. Her's is the language of blood and death, of bone and finality; her philosophy is silence and her song is the last breath of fallen heroes. Ker was misunderstood by later writers to be a creature of evil, or -- worse still -- a trivial "sprite" or spirit that nuisanced itself upon soldiers in battle. Some equated Her (in plural form) to the evils unleashed from Pandora's box, while others still saw Her (perhaps more appropriately) as the predecessor to the Erinyes, or Furies.
Ker is still very much involved in the world today, in the same manners that She always has been. There are others living who have known Her touch and felt Her call, though many have no context or name for this experience. Communion with Ker is a challenge -- but a worthwhile one, for those among her chosen. Ker may be called upon in time of silent grief or bleeding death, when life has all but flown out into the ground: She will answer, in Her way. She always answers.
A complex Deity who appears in both singular and plural form (Ker and Keres), she is associated with black-winged carrion birds (especially ravens and old-world vultures) and has always been depicted and descripted as being stained with the blood of the violently fated mortals whose deliverance landed in her domain. In the fulfillment of her responsibilities, she utilizes a group of death spirits known -- confusingly -- as the keres (singular "ker"), who circle battlefields like blood-ravens waiting to gorge themselves on the freshly fallen in payment for transporting their souls through their Mistress' realms to whichever worlds they are destined for in the afterlife. To further confuse, there is also a system of Fate described by Homer, which measure's a person's "death fate" (or "ker") against that of an opponent, to determine the outcome of battles. The process of measuring these fates is known as Kerostasia, from which this website gains its name.
Her origins predate the rise of the Hellenic cultures, with signs pointing to the pre-Minoan Cretans as her first European worshipers. It seems that her interest in humans may have begun with a paleolithic group from North Africa, who migrated north to the Isle of Crete (situated 99 miles south of the Greek mainland, in the Aegean sea) in the earliest archeologically supported demonstration of a sea-crossing journey. Her earliest worship was received in the sacred caves found throughout the mountains of this small Mediterranean island.
Predating civilization (as it is currently defined) and even developed language, Ker is not -- nor has she ever been -- an easy Goddess to interact with. Her's is a primal will, an ancient manner, not easily understood in the context of even the early Greek civilizations, who primarily worshiped later Gods and Goddesses of agriculture, ruler-ship and developed culture. Her's is the language of blood and death, of bone and finality; her philosophy is silence and her song is the last breath of fallen heroes. Ker was misunderstood by later writers to be a creature of evil, or -- worse still -- a trivial "sprite" or spirit that nuisanced itself upon soldiers in battle. Some equated Her (in plural form) to the evils unleashed from Pandora's box, while others still saw Her (perhaps more appropriately) as the predecessor to the Erinyes, or Furies.
Ker is still very much involved in the world today, in the same manners that She always has been. There are others living who have known Her touch and felt Her call, though many have no context or name for this experience. Communion with Ker is a challenge -- but a worthwhile one, for those among her chosen. Ker may be called upon in time of silent grief or bleeding death, when life has all but flown out into the ground: She will answer, in Her way. She always answers.
