Cer
（
Κήρ), the personified necessity of death (
Κήρ or
Κῆρες Δανάτοιο).
The passages in the Homeric poems in which the
Κήρ or
Κῆρες a appear as real personifications, are not very numerous (
Il. 2.302,
3.454,
18.535), and in most cases the word may be taken as a common noun.
The plural form seems to allude to the various modes of dying which Homer ((
Hom. Il. 12.326) pronounces to be
μυρίαι, and may be a natural, sudden, or violent death. (
Od. 11.171, &c., 398, &c.) The
Κῆρες are described as formidable, dark, and hateful, because they carry off men to the joyless house of Hades. (
Il. 2.859,
3.454;
Od. 3.410,
14.207.) The
Κῆρες, although no living being can escape them, have yet no absolute power over the life of men: they are under Zeus and the gods, who can stop them in their course or hurry them on. (
Il. 12.402,
18.115,
4.11;
Od. 11.397.) Even mortals themselves may for a time prevent their attaining their object, or delay it by flight and the like. (
Il. 3.32,
16.47.) During a battle the
Κῆρες wander about with Eris and Cydoimos in bloody garments, quarrelling about the wounded and the dead, and dragging them away by the feet. (
Il. 18.535, &c.)
According to Hesiod, with whom the
Κῆρες assume a more definite form, they are the daughters of Nyx and sisters of the Moerae, and punish men for their crimes. (
Theog. 211, 217;
Paus. 5.19.1.) Their fearful appearance in battle is described by Hesiod. (
Scut. Here. 249, &c.) They are mentioned by later writers together with the Erinnyes as the goddesses who avenge the crimes of men. (Aesch.
Sept. 1055; comp.
Apollon. 4.1665, &c.) Epidemic diseases are sometimes personified as
Κῆρες. (Orph.
Hymn. 13.12, 66.4,
Lith. 7.6;
Eustath. ad Hom. p. 847.)
[
L.S]
