Macaria - Goddess

Goddess

A goddess Macaria is named in the Suda. This Macaria is the daughter of Hades (no mother is mentioned). She seems to have embodied a blessed death; the Suda connects her name to the figure of speech "be gone to blessedness," instead of misery or damnation, which may be euphemistic, in the way that the dead are referred to as "the blessed ones." The phrase was proverbial for those whose courage endangered them.

One source suggests Macaria may have been a more merciful counterpart of the death-god Thanatos. Another suggested possibility is that Macaria may have been connected with the passage of souls to the Nesoi Makarioi, or the Fortunate Isles or Islands of the Blest.