_Thanatos_, the personification of Death, appears on vases[872] almost exclusively in one aspect, as the bearer of souls in conjunction with Hypnos (Sleep); they convey the body of Memnon from Troy to his home in Egypt,[873] and this type is borrowed for other scenes (_e.g._ on the funeral lekythi) in which an ordinary warrior is borne “to his long home.”[874] In one instance Thanatos is seen urging Ajax on to commit suicide[875]; he also appears on another vase where the subject may relate to the story of Ixion.[876] Representations of Death-demons or Harpies,[877] and of Κῆρες θανάτοιο, or small winged figures boding or signifying death,[878] are by no means uncommon. It has been held by some writers that the personifications of Thanatos above referred to are more properly to be regarded as Κῆρες θανάτοιο.[879] These small winged figures are also employed to represent a soul escaping from a deceased person[880]; or, again, to indicate the souls of Achilles and Hector (or Memnon) when weighed by Zeus (see below, pp. 130, 132).[881] We also find actual representations on B.F. vases of the ghost of a hero, especially in Trojan scenes; he floats through the air fully armed, with large wings.[882] § 3. COSMOGONIC AND OTHER DEITIES In the next instance it will be found appropriate to discuss sundry representations which are connected with the earlier or Titanic cosmogony, although, with the exception of the Gigantomachia, already discussed, allusions thereto are comparatively rare on vases. Chief among these personages is =Ge= or =Gaia=, the Earth-mother, half Titanic, half Chthonian, who is usually represented as a figure rising half out of the ground, with flowing hair. She thus appears in several Gigantomachia scenes (as the mother of the giants, who were Γηγενεῖς, earth-born),[883] and at the birth of Dionysos and Erichthonios, where she hands the child to Athena.[884] As a full-length figure she appears protecting her sons Tityos and Antaios against Apollo and Herakles respectively[885]; also in certain doubtful scenes on B.F. vases as the Nursing-mother (Κουροτρόφος), with two children in her arms,[886] though we have already seen (p. 30) that these are susceptible of another interpretation. Finally, the series of scenes in which men are represented hammering on the head of a female figure rising from the earth[887] may be regarded as referring to Gaia, with allusion to the custom of smiting on the earth to raise spirits. In this connection Gaia is undoubtedly to be identified with Pandora (see below).[888] A cognate subject is that of a similar female head or bust in company with Eros, sometimes found on late Italian vases.[889] If Gaia is here intended, her connection with Eros finds some support in the poetic cosmogonies[890]; otherwise it may be Aphrodite.