In Greek mythology, the Keres (/;k;ri;z/; Ancient Greek: ;;;;;), singular Ker (/;k;r/; ;;;), were female death-spirits. They were the goddesses who personified violent death and who were drawn to bloody deaths on battlefields.[3] Although they were present during death and dying, they did not have the power to kill. All they could do was wait and then feast on the dead. The Keres were daughters of Nyx, and as such the sisters of beings such as Moirai,[3] who controlled the fate of souls, and Thanatos, the god of peaceful death. Some later authorities, such as Cicero, called them by a Latin name, Tenebrae ("the Darknesses"), and named them daughters of Erebus and Nyx.
The Greek word ;;; means "death" or "doom"[4] and appears as a proper noun in the singular and plural as ;;; and ;;;;; to refer to divinities. Homer uses ;;;;; in the phrase ;;;;; ;;;;;;;;, "Keres of death". By extension the word may mean "plague, disease" and in prose "blemish or defect". The relative verb ;;;;;;; or ;;;;; means "ravage or plunder".[5] Sometimes in Homer the words ;;; and moira have similar meanings. The older meaning was probably "destruction of the dead", and Hesychius of Alexandria relates the word to the verb ;;;;;;;;; "decay".[6]
The black Dooms gnashing their white teeth, grim-eyed, fierce, bloody, terrifying fought over the men who were dying for they were all longing to drink dark blood. As soon as they caught a man who had fallen or one newly wounded, one of them clasped her great claws around him and his soul went down to Hades, to chilly Tartarus. And when they had satisfied their hearts with human blood, they would throw that one behind them and rush back again into the battle and the tumult.
Their anger was personified,
They would fly above the battlefield
And drink blood.
They were mae of darkness and sadness,
Their nature was destructive
And effects were horrendous.
Their mission was
To unite death and the fallen warriors.