Thanos
Earth Culture of Origin
Greek
Alternate Names / Spellings
Thanatos, Thanatus. Latin: Mors, Letum
Presides Over
Death, Non-violent death (as opposed to violent death overseen by his "blood-craving sisters, the Keres, spirits of slaughter and disease" — Theoi Project: Thanatos)
Personal Symbols
"In Greek vase painting Thanatos was depicted as a winged, bearded older man, or more rarely as a beardless youth. He often appears in a scene from the Iliad, opposite his brother Hypnos (Sleep) carrying off the body of Sarpedon. In Roman sculptural reliefs he was portrayed as a youth holding a down-turned torch and wreath or butterfly (symbolising the soul of the dead)." — Theoi Project: Thanatos
Earth Mythological References
Thanatos had no temples, although there were sacrifices made to him.
He is written about in several classics, including those by Homer and Virgil.
His touch is gentle, like Death at Old Age, but in some literature, he is hated by mortals and immortals alike. Mortals, because they fear him; immortals, because he cannot touch them and is basically useless.
Stargate References
Three thousand years ago, Thanos was the Goa'uld who conducted research into the deriving of naquadria from naquadah on the planet now known as Langara. He recorded his research on a crystal, and as it turned out, that research survived while he did not. An apparent accident in the lab resulted in his demise, and the explosion was the catalyst that started the conversion of naquadah deposits into naquadria. This conversion made naquadria unique to Langara, and Thanos' demise prevented that information from getting into the hands of rival Goa'uld System Lords. (7.14 "Fallout")
In modern times, the people of Langara's nation of Kelowna found the Stargate and Thanos' research. The data crystal was an unknown technology to them, so they cartoned that and used his other writings instead. They began the process of building a naquadria bomb to use against their rival nations. Their initial experiments showed how extremely powerful naquadria was, exponentially so over its base form of naquadah. (5.21 "Meridian", 7.02 "Homecoming Part 2")
Their detonation of their naquadria bomb also started a chain reaction of converting naquadah into naquadria while it still remained in the ground. (7.14 "Fallout")
When Anubis captured Jonas Quinn, a Kelownan aware of the naquadria bomb project, he immediately invaded Langara to find all of Thanos' research, especially that stored on the crystal. The officials of the various governments handed over their stockpiles of naquadria in the hope that Anubis would be satisfied and leave them alone, but that is not the way of the Goa'uld. Anubis had one of his scientists try to use naquadria to power his new weapon on his mothership, but the instability of naquadria caused an explosion instead. Anubis knew that he needed that research crystal if he were to make any more progress in harnessing the great power that naquadria promised. (7.02 "Homecoming Part 2")
Anubis didn't get the crystal, although he did come close when his First Prime Herak briefly held it in his hands (pictured above), and his mothership was destroyed by a combined force of the System Lords led by Ba'al. (7.02 "Homecoming Part 2")
The Kelownans, now understanding the nature of the crystal, began to extract information from it, and it was from this data that they discovered that Thanos had engineered naquadria. They also found out that the naquadria vein's progression was about to create an imminent explosion that could end their planet. With the help of one of Ba'al's Goa'uld spies, they stopped the threat by setting off an explosion that isolated the naquadria vein from the naquadah. Ba'al didn't learn of naquadria from his spy because she died saving the planet. (7.02 "Homecoming Part 2", 7.14 "Fallout")
According to their research, the naquadria will revert back to naquadah over the next 10,000 years if left untouched. (7.14 "Fallout")
Episodes
Related Characters
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Further Reading
Actor
- none
--DeeKayP 20:47, 3 May 2010 (UTC)