Below is the Greek legend of Keres, inspiration for the book Keres' Eyes
THE KERES were the female spirits(daimones) of violent or cruel death, including death in battle, by accident, murder or ravaging disease. Another spiritThanatos, was the god of the more peaceful kinds of death.
They were agents of the Moirai (Fates), Birth-Daimones who measured out the length of a man's life when he first entered the world, and Moros (Doom) the Daimon who drove a man towards his inevitable destruction. The Keres were cravers of blood and feasted upon it after ripping a soul free from the mortally wounded bodies and sending it on their way to Haides. Thousands of Keres haunted the battlefield, fighting amongst themselves like vultures over the dying. The Keres had no absolute power over the life of men, but in their hunger for blood would seek accomplish death beyond the bounds of fate. Zeus and the other gods, however, could stop them in their course or speed them on. The Olympian gods are often described standing by their favorites in battle, beating the clawing death spirits from them. Some of the Keres were personifications of epidemic diseases, which haunted areas riven by plague. (See also the Nosoi). The Keres were depicted as fanged, taloned women dressed in bloody garments.
The Keres may have been the evil spirits released from Pandora's jar to plague mankind. Hesiod mentions them indirectly in his account of the episode. He describes these spirits as kakoi (evils), nosoi (sicknesses and plagues) and lugra (banes).
According to Valkyrie - Temple Illuminati
The Keres are Daughters of the Goddess of Death in Greek History, Goddess Nyx.
They are deadly female Spirits who hover over battlefields and are identical to the Valkyries apart from the manner in which death takes place. The Keres are usually depicted as violent, merciless and bloodthirsty; while the Valkyries were regarded as largely benevolent Angels of Death.
The Name Keres is directly linked in an etymological sense to Valkyrie and the very similar descriptions of the Angels leave little room to doubt that there is as usual, a common origin to the so-called “myths” in a universal sense.. The earliest accounts of the Valkyries indicate that originally, Matriarchy ruled and that the Valkyries were the Nordic Priestesses of a universal Goddess worship.
As all of the original tales were adapted to the needs of the new religions of patriarchy, one can see quite easily that although certain elements of the original and true Goddess legends remain to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the region and where the patriarchal Church establishment had a correspondingly greater or lesser degree of influence and power; that these legends incorporate the Goddess and the Priestesses as either in a subservient (the Valkyries serve drinks) or inferior position to the male Deities. There are many examples of this throughout the mythology of the new patriarchal religions..
Odin’s sacred bird, the Raven, always appears around the Valkyries; and horses ~ especially the Mare of Death. The shapeshifting abilities of these Priestesses, or Death Angels, enabled them to transform into various shape forms such as wolves and hawks in addition to these.
In Swedish Valkyrie lore, the Priestess was called a Volva, and would change into a mare to be able to take the spirit of the deceased away from this earthly realm and facilitating the link between the worlds.
Failing incorporating the aspects of Goddess into the male-dominated pantheons; the Dark Goddesses were demonized together with the priestesses of old, the Witches. Whereas the witch was the Wise One and formerly respected as the Priestess or Priest of the Goddess, now Witches were not allowed to live and cast out as servants of the new patriarchal devil or his equivalents..
The Valkyries, Norns and Keres are strangely similar to the Judeo-Christian Angel of Death. The Angel of Death does not take sides ~ if the decree of the Divinity is to sever the life-thread of the individual, that decision is final. The Angel of Death is accompanied by a host of death-dealing Spirits, whose task it is to collect the soul of the deceased. Whether or not this removal of the soul or Life Force is benevolently done or violently, is said to be dependent on the deeds of the person while they were alive. This is identical to the belief which existed far before Judeo-Christianity, that souls were collected violently by the Keres; while gently by the Valkyries. This shows a distinction between the Angels. It can be seen that this tradition continued in Christianity, whereas Michael is the benevolent Angel of Death; the “evil” Angel of Death is known as Samael, the consort of Lilith, the Great Goddess of Death and Love in Pagan Hebrew tradition and later on to become the Queen of Demons according to Judaism.
Without going into too much detail, let’s say that the basic concept of Death and how we approach Death, is at the crux of the differences between Nature-based Pagan spirituality and the Dualistic Patriarchal religions. In the latter traditions, Death is evil, and something to be overcome ~ an enemy to be combatted at the End of Days.
In the former view, Death is known as impartial and an integral part of the endless Cycles of Life. Literally, then, Death was something to be welcomed , embraced and celebrated by the Pagan Ancestors of the human race who viewed the whole experience of dying as completely natural and being the gateway to a future existence; literally the event of a lifetime. Accordingly, the whole lifetime of a person who wished to be reunited with the Goddess and God after death was framed by this knowledge and certainty of life after death..
Death is seen by these Pagans as represented by the Death Goddesses, Kali, Lilith, Nyx, Persephone in Her Crone aspect, Ereshkigal and The Morrigan ~ Fata Morgana ~ to mention a few. The Death Goddess consumes all, yet all life is born anew in it’s turn. Death is thus either feared or welcomed, depending on your perspective, naturally.
The Goddess has two principal aspects ~ Death and Love ~ as She is the Beginning and Ending and everything in-between. Death leads invariably to Life and Love in Nature.
As Death is feared by the fear-based religions, the Death Goddess is now portrayed as fearsome and evil by these religions instead of being venerated.
http://www.templeilluminatus.com/group/the-triple-goddess/forum/topics/valkyrie