The Keres is generally thought of as a group of Goddesses hovering over scenes of mass destruction of human life such as battlefields. It was the Keres who executed the will of the Fates, delivering to individuals the fatal death blow and carrying them away. 'The Keres' are described as wearing red robes, have sharp teeth, claws and sparkling eyes...

So much for myth. In fact The Keres is singular, not plural. There is only one Goddess and she is the 'angel of death'; but her administration also includes the crucial period following... 
 ...Judgement of the soul. 

The Keres is one of the most frightening of Olympian figures. Always she appears dressed in long dark robe and hood, and materialises from a swirling mist. Her voice has such a threatening, menacing quality; it freezes you to the bone. 

"You are brave to invite me here. You tremble. Everyone trembles when I am near them.  I am feared and so I should be. I am the mighty Goddess the Keres. No one ever paid homage before. I am pleased someone has. I should be honoured by all mortals. I hold the power of their life or death  Few know much about me, but they will before too long and woe unto those who do not honour me. I demand honour and respect." 
    It takes great courage to travel with the Keres during a session of worship. She is never gentle and most times just drags team-members to where she wants. For several years encounters with the Keres involved tests of courage amid corpses and carnage; but as the following account reveals, her jurisdiction over humankind is considerably more than simply ending their life on earth...

'...I was taken to a series of strange stone caverns and guessed I was underground. It was freezing cold there. 
    In the chamber was a slab of rock 3 metres long with all sorts of papers on it, and a chair-like stool behind it. The Keres was sitting there as if at a desk. On one wall to her left was a shelf waist-high that ran the whole length and it was piled with more papers on top of one another, but I noticed a few rolled up scrolls, yellowy parchment colour. The Keres was flipping through the papers on her 'desk'. I stood in front, facing her. She found one paper and then read to me. Her voice is harsh and threatening: "It is here much is decided about a soul. This is on you. You are dedicated and sincere, and realise how privileged you are, that is in your favour."

She went back to reading, so I looked around me and noticed there were things hanging from the walls, things with writing on, but no pictures; and strange charts. Most of the walls were covered in these. The desk was covered with papers and what looked like wooden boxes. I counted four of them about 12 inches long and what looked like an old-fashioned wooden key 6 inches long. Everything about the room seemed grey, but there was light, dingy but not dim. I don't understand where the light comes from, it is as if it radiates from them, the Gods and Goddesses. She was looking at me again.
    "At the time of their death all mortals recognise me. You have stood in this place on hundreds of occasions when your time was over; sometimes in fear, other times calm. Next time let it be in peace that you come, and not in fear. But that will depend on YOU!" 

Beside the Keres was a plain, bronze lectern and what looked like a very large book. Then I saw movement behind me and watched as a woman, completely naked, was brought screaming into the chamber by two tall dark-robed creatures. They dragged her forward and the Keres flashed a skeletal hand across the woman's throat and severed her vocal chords. "I like silence," she growled. 
    The Keres' robe has long sleeves but I watched her hands. All I saw were her finger-tips across the woman's throat. She needed no knife, for as her fingertips touched the skin, slits opened up in the woman's flesh.
    The Keres turned to me. "Have no compassion. This woman butchered eight innocent people including three children." Then she gouged out the woman's eyes just by touching them and held them in her hands and just threw them at my feet. It was horrible. 

"Every soul faces me at the end of every incarnation, yet they do not remember that they have seen me before. If they did, some may not be so evil. "

There next arrived in the chamber a man in his 50s and he too stood in front of her as she raised her hooded head toward him.
    "You come before me after travelling through the tunnel of death. You have done good deeds in your life. You have also done bad ones. You have been kind, you have been cruel." 
    The man was shaking with fear. I was shaking for him and felt very sorry for him. The Keres was reading from what seemed to be a large ledger, studying it. "You James Paul have never been violent or  physically cruel, but very cruel with your words. You will not go to the Underworld. You will go to a Goddess who will then send you to the right place after you have rested." 

The Keres pointed and the man followed in that direction to a small door and a woman took the man's place. I don't know where she came from, she was just standing there. She looked 35 or so.
    "Your name is Sandra?" and the woman nodded to the Keres' question. "There doesn't seem to be another one." And the woman shook her head. "Nor do you deserve one." Again the Keres looked in her book. "You have been guilty of many crimes. Cruel to a child, cruel to animals and unfaithful to the man who loved you. Many, many times have you committed crimes. Not one deed of kindness can I see." The Keres pointed and the woman went towards a door.
    Then the Keres spoke to me: "That woman is for the Underworld. Now you!"
    At that point I thought I was dead. But she said: "No. Not yet. Not at this hour. Later." And I realised she was talking to someone behind me.

"My anger is easily raised by those who think we the mighty and great ones are myth and not reality. " 
    And next there appeared a man and a woman. The Keres spoke in such a commanding voice it made me tremble. "Wretched mortals, kneel!" And the man fell to his knees. "You are here to be judged. One will go one way, the other opposite."
    It was as if there was a strange feeling of electricity in the chamber, like electric shocks and the couple were jumping about from the shocks, even I could feel it. Whatever it was, it was very strong. The Keres was speaking but somehow I couldn't hear, but then she shouted in the most ferocious voice: "You will pay for your sins!"  'I don't know who they were nor what they had done but I was terrified and it made me jump a lot.
    "The Watchtower! These are mortals who cause me much aggravation. Thrusting their foolish interpretations at others. Mortals have lived for a long time, but we have been here longer. We are wiser than mortals, but few listen, few hear. When mortals reach the light they are sorted out, going in different directions. The Goddesses the Fates, the Goddess Nemesis and myself the mighty Keres make the decisions. Hades..." and she pointed in one direction. Then she pointed in another, "The gentler Gods and Goddesses." Then she swung round and pointed to a wall of mist. "Those who go there reach nowhere until the time is right." 

Then she threw back her hood and I could see her eyes, nose and mouth and she smiled and her eyes seemed to light up violet and flash. They aren't ordinary eyes.  " Live the rest of your life honourably and remember, I am never far away and now I have temples in many, many places. Some of the congregations are white, some brown and some quite black. No matter what their colour they will be influenced by me and at the end of their lives if they have not seen me before, they will see me then. You now have seen enough. Return. Today I will give you my blessings."

Festival of the Keres:11th June