Psychopomp

Psychopomps, from the Greek psychopompos meaning "guide of souls". Psychopomps appear in many religions, as either a spirit, angel or deity, whose job it is to lead the souls of the deceased safely into the afterlife. They do not pass judgment on the deceased. Every belief system has its own respective psychopomp type figure, sometimes even more than one. In African mythology, the spirits of the deceased's ancestors lead them. In Celtic mythology, there are Ankou, Geyn ap Nudd and Epona, who is said to lead souls into the afterlife with her horses. Azrael is the psychopomp figure in Islamic mythology. The Norse have the Valkyries and Baldur and the Egyptians have Anubis and Horus. The Christian mythos counts the Archangel Michael, St. Peter and Jesus Christ amongst their list of psychopomps.

Psychopomps are also featured in various works of fiction. In Dante's Inferno, the character of Virgil serves as Dante's guide through Hell. Horror, fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft portrayed whipporwills as malign psychopomps in some of his works. In his Sandman comics, Neil Gaiman uses Death, who is portrayed as a Gothic teenage girl, as a guide to the souls of the dead. The character of Lucifer Morningstar also fills the role of psychopomp as times in the series. Perhaps the strangest instance of a psychopomp in fiction is the title character of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. In the novel, it is stated that "[t]here odd stories about him; as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened.”

Source:
www.psychopomps.org
Peter Pan; J.M. Barrie
Psychopomps; Wikipedia