The Lithuanian goddess Giltinė exemplifies how traditional societies personified abstract concepts like death through mythological figures with distinctive visual and narrative characteristics. Her name's etymological connection to words meaning "to sting" and "thorn" demonstrates how linguistic associations shaped mythological personification, creating coherent symbolic systems that connected abstract concepts to tangible physical experiences.

Giltinė's distinctive appearance—elderly, blue-faced, with a long nose and poisonous tongue—created vivid visual representation of death's fearsome aspects. This visualisation exemplifies how mythological thinking made abstract phenomena comprehensible through concrete imagery, translating invisible processes into recognisable forms that could be conceptually managed if not physically controlled. The specificity of her attributes demonstrates how mythological figures were not vague entities but precisely articulated symbolic constructs.

Her transformation narrative—from youthful beauty to ghastly form after seven years in a coffin—provides explanatory framework for understanding death's inevitability and irreversibility. As sister to Laima, goddess of life's beginnings, Giltinė represents the complementary force that completes life's cycle, demonstrating how mythological systems created coherent cosmic order by establishing balanced relationships between opposing forces.

Stories of mortals attempting to outwit Giltinė reflect universal human desire to postpone death while acknowledging its ultimate inevitability. The Christian influence that later introduced the scythe to her iconography exemplifies how mythological figures evolve through cultural contact, incorporating new elements while maintaining core symbolic functions. Giltinė thus demonstrates how mythological personifications create meaningful frameworks for understanding mortality, evolving through changing historical circumstances while addressing enduring human concerns about life's inevitable end.