this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 147 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Scythes reap grain.

The grim reaper uses it to reap souls.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 69 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

At least the E is after the R and not the P.

[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

That's a different guy, he goes by POTUS.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

It's before the A.

EDIT: Now you got me wondering how you could rape a soul. Is it ghost fucking, like Ghostbusters? Probably not the best example but it's what came to mind.

[–] MrShankles@reddthat.com 1 points 2 days ago

Beverly Crusher is the expert, I would defer to her

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 2 days ago

lol oops. That was supposed to be an R.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well, they also cut down overgrown flora and grasses. In there lies a metaphor about humans being a pestilence to every other thing in proximity trying to survive.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 22 hours ago

mmm ecofascism mmmm

[–] Zonetrooper@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"What can the harvest hope for, if not the care of the reaper man?"

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago

Can't beat Pratchett when it comes to wise words.

[–] tektite@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

[It's a Mr. Death or something; he's come about the reaping??

I don't think we need any at the moment...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0frHw-7J4Mk)

[–] sixty@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago
[–] 5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Because he is reaping the souls.

The scythe as an artistic symbol of death has deliberate agricultural associations since the medieval period due to the importance of farming and seasons. The tool symbolizes the removal of human souls from their bodies in huge numbers, with the analogy being to a farmer (reaper) cutting through large swaths of grain crops during harvest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Reaper

Edit: Death personified as someone harvesting is a very old metaphor:

For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them. Jeremia 9, 21-22

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Linking the agricultural cycle of planting, growing, harvest with the human lifecycle is a very common metaphor.

We see this in the myth of persephone, where going into the underworld and returning (ie death and rebirth) is a metaphor for the harvest cycle. Greek mystery cults were all over this too and it's likely a pre-greek remnant from the Early European Farmers who inhabited the area before steppe-descended greek speakers began moving in.

So the association of death and harvesting probably starts fairly early.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

Isn't "reap" an agricultural term to begin with? "You reap what you sow"?

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 8 points 2 days ago

It separates grass from ground, and heads from bodies. Wooosh!

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] jim_v@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] anistorian@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

We are the ones who make a writer gay

[–] eurodyne@piefed.world 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
[–] it_depends_man@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (3 children)

When scythes were invented, they were a very hot, new, efficient tool. Previously they only had some curved had knifes and had to harvest every few bits of wheat individually, but with a scythe you could take those wide swings and get lots of wheat at once.

Think of it as going from a handgun revolver to a machine gun, except in a way that a medieval peasant would understand.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 22 hours ago

even better: Mowing with a scythe lets you easily deposit the grain neatly in a row (windrow), which means you can just have one person hauling ass on the scythe and another behind them bundling up the straws.
It's honestly pretty insane how close to ideal scythe harvesting is.

[–] leds@feddit.dk 2 points 1 day ago

Also scythes are stupidly sharp, could have been a lot of lethal accidents at the time giving them an association with death?

[–] thomasloven@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

To add to this, the image of the grim reaper carrying a scythe first started showing up during the bubonic plague in Europe, where people were dying en masse.

As ye have sown so shall ye reap!

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago

grim reaper, Death also has the touch of death, they can instantly simply by touching or imagining it. also other things, could be controlling the forces of nature