Psychopomp

A guide of souls to the world of the dead — the role Hermes plays when he leads the suitors' spirits "down the dank ways" in the last book of the Odyssey, and Anubis in the Egyptian texts, who presides over embalming and stands at the scales. The Greek word (psychopompos, "conductor of souls") is used in modern comparative study for any such figure; the Norse texts have choosers of the slain rather than guides.