Twilight of the Gods
Deities' final hour
Twilight of the Gods translates the German *Götterdämmerung*, referring to the catastrophic end of the Norse gods in battle against evil forces.
The phrase evokes a dramatic, inevitable downfall of once-powerful entities—whether literal deities, empires, or dominant institutions: The scandal marked the twilight of the gods for that political dynasty.
Wagner's opera of the same name cemented the phrase in Western culture as shorthand for spectacular, world-ending collapse.
- doomsdayProphesied world's end
- BrünnhildeNorse shield-maiden of opera
- RagnarokNorse end of days
- final battleDecisive concluding combat
- world's endApocalypse or remotest boundary
Odin · mythology · apocalypse · Thor · Bayreuth Festival · opera house · Loki · end times · end of days · Gesamtkunstwerk · leitmotif · tetralogy · fate · judgment day · Norns · valkyries · Fenrir · heroic saga
Twilight of the Godsgenesis
Point of creation
creation myth · cosmogony · theogony · divine birth · origin of the universe
Twilight of the Godsprologue
Introductory literary section
overture · golden age · apotheosis · ascension · coronation
twilight, gods, light, lights, lighted, lighting, lighter, lightest, lighten