View source for Hades

{{Short description|God of the underworld in Greek mythology}}
{{About|the Greek god|the location|Greek underworld|and|Christian views on Hades|other uses}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{pp-move-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Hades
| image = Detail of Pluto-Serapis, Statue group of Persephone (as Isis) and Pluto (as Serapis), from the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Gortyna, mid-2nd century AD, Heraklion Archaeological Museum (30305313721).jpg
| alt = Heraklion Archaeological Museum
| caption = Hades/[[Serapis]] with [[Cerberus]], mid-2nd century AD statute from the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at [[Gortyna]]
| god_of = [[Deity|God]] of the [[List of death deities|dead]] and [[List of fortune deities|riches]]<br />[[King]] of the [[Greek underworld|underworld]]
| abode = [[Greek underworld]]
| symbol = <!--[[bident]], [[cap of invisibility]], neither association is clearly shown according to reliable scholarly sources-->[[Cornucopia]], [[Cypress]], [[Narcissus (plant)|Narcissus]], keys, serpent, [[Mentha |mint plant]], [[white poplar]], dog, pomegranate, sheep, cattle, screech owl, horse, chariot
| consort = [[Persephone]]
| parents = [[Cronus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]
| siblings = [[Poseidon]], [[Demeter]], [[Hestia]], [[Hera]], [[Zeus]]
| children = [[Macaria (daughter of Hades)|Macaria]], and in some cases [[Zagreus]], [[Dionysus]],<ref>{{harvnb|Collard|O'Sullivan|2013|p=297}}: "Zagreus, i.e. 'Great Hunter', a cult-title of Dionysus in Orphism, identified here with Hades's son [...]"</ref> and the [[Erinyes]] <!--Please only re-add Melinoe as a child of Hades with a source.-->
| Roman_equivalent = [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], [[Dis Pater]], [[Orcus]]
}}
{{Greek mythology sidebar}}
'''Hades''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|eɪ|d|iː|z}}; {{langx|grc|ᾍδης|Hā́idēs}}, {{IPA|grc-x-attic|háːi̯dεːs|lang|link=yes}}, later {{IPA|grc|háːdeːs|}})<!--vowel raising in koine-->, in the [[ancient Greek religion]] and [[Greek mythology|mythology]], is the [[Deity|god]] of the [[List of death deities|dead]] and [[List of fortune deities|riches]] and the [[King]] of the [[Greek underworld|underworld]], with which his name became synonymous.<ref>{{citation |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |contribution-url= https://www.worldhistory.org/Hades/ |contribution= Hades |title= World History Encyclopedia |access-date=29 June 2015 }}.</ref> Hades was the eldest son of [[Cronus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], although this also made him the last son to be [[Cronus#Mythology|regurgitated by his father]].<ref>Reckoning by this reverse order is preferred by [[Poseidon]] in his speech at [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:15.184-15.219 15.187].</ref> He and his brothers, [[Zeus]] and [[Poseidon]], defeated, overthrew, and replaced their father's generation of gods, the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]],<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D1 ''Apollod.'' 1.2.1]</ref> and claimed joint [[sovereignty]] over the [[cosmos]]. Hades received the [[Greek underworld|underworld]], Zeus the [[sky]], and Poseidon the [[sea]], with the [[solid earth]], which was long the domain of [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]], available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a [[bident]]<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Bane 
 |first1               = Theresa
 |date                 = 29 May 2020
 |title                = Encyclopedia of Mythological Objects
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=QAnoDwAAQBAJ
 |series               = McFarland Myth and Legend Encyclopedias
 |publisher            = McFarland
 |page                 = 30
 |isbn                 = 9781476639208
 |access-date          = 24 August 2023
 |quote                = Hades's pitchfork[:] The bident (a two-pronged spear) was the traditional weapon of Hades (Roman god Dis/Pluto), the god of the Underworld, in classical Greek mythology; his black bident had the ability to create earthquakes [...]. 
}} 
</ref>
and wearing his [[cap of invisibility|helm]] with [[Cerberus]], the [[Polycephaly|three-headed]] [[dogs in religion#Religions, myths, legends, and cultures|guard-dog]] of the underworld, standing at his side.

Roman-era mythographers eventually [[interpretatio graeca|equated]] the [[Etruscan religion|Etruscan]] god [[Aita]],<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Palmer
 |first1               = Abram Smythe
 |author-link1         = Abram Smythe Palmer
 |year                 = 1882
 |chapter              = Hades
 |title                = Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning, by False Derivation Or Mistaken Analogy
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=YX5BAAAAYAAJ
 |publication-place    = London
 |publisher            = G. Bell and Sons
 |page                 = 480
 |access-date          = 24 August 2023
 |quote                = Another form of the same word may be ''Aita'', Hades, the Pluto or King of the Shades in the Etruscan mythology, whose majestic figure, with his name attached, has been discovered in the wall paintings of the Grotto dell' Orco at Corneto [...].
}} 
</ref>
and the [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman]] gods [[Dis Pater]] and [[Orcus]], with Hades, and merged all these figures into [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], a [[Latinization of names|Latinisation]] of '''Plouton''' ({{langx|grc|{{linktext|Πλούτων}}|Ploútōn}}),<ref name=":6" /> itself a euphemistic title (meaning "the rich one") often given to Hades.

==Name==
{{anchor|Etymology|Word|Epithets}}
The origin of Hades's name is uncertain but has generally been seen as meaning "the unseen one" since [[classical antiquity|antiquity]]. An extensive section of [[Plato]]'s [[Platonic dialogue|dialogue]] [[Cratylus (dialogue)|''Cratylus'']] is devoted to the etymology of the god's name, in which [[Socrates]] is arguing for a [[folk etymology]] not from "unseen" but from "his knowledge (''[[wikt:εἴδω|eidenai]]'') of all noble things". [[linguistics|Modern linguists]] have proposed the [[Proto-Greek]] form *''Awides'' ("unseen").<ref>According to Dixon-Kennedy, [https://archive.org/stream/MikeDixonKennedy.......encyclopediaOfGrecoRomanMythologybyHouseOfBooks/MikeDixonKennedy.......encyclopediaOfGreco-romanMythologybyHouseOfBooks#page/n159/mode/2up p. 143] (following [[Karl Kerenyi|Kerényi]] 1951, p. 230) says "...his name means 'the unseen', a direct contrast to his brother Zeus, who was originally seen to represent the brightness of day". Ivanov, p. 284, citing Beekes 1998, pp. 17–19, notes that derivation of Hades from a proposed *''som wid-'' is semantically untenable; see also Beekes 2009, p. 34.</ref> The earliest attested form is ''Aḯdēs'' ({{lang|grc|Ἀΐδης}}), which lacks the proposed [[digamma]]. [[Martin Litchfield West]] argues instead for an original meaning of "the one who presides over meeting up" from the universality of death.<ref>[[Martin Litchfield West|West, M. L.]], ''Indo-European Poetry and Myth'', OUP, 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA394 p. 394].</ref>

[[File:Amphora Hades Louvre G209 n2.jpg|thumb|left|Hades (right) and Persephone (left). Detail from an Attic red-figure amphora, {{Circa|470 BC}}. From Italy]]
In [[Homeric Greek|Homeric]] and [[Ionic Greek]], he was known as ''Áïdēs''.<ref>Bailly, ''s.v.'' Ἅιδης.</ref> Other poetic variations of the name include ''Aïdōneús'' ({{lang|grc|Ἀϊδωνεύς}}) and the inflected forms ''Áïdos'' ({{lang|grc|Ἄϊδος}}, [[genitive case|gen]].), ''Áïdi'' ({{lang|grc|Ἄϊδι}}, [[dative case|dat.]]), and ''Áïda'' ({{lang|grc|Ἄϊδα}}, [[accusative case|acc.]]), whose [[linguistic reconstruction|reconstructed]] [[nominative case]] *''Áïs'' ({{lang|grc|*Ἄϊς}}) is, however, not attested.<ref>Bailly, ''s.v.'' *Ἄϊς.</ref> The name as it came to be known in [[classical antiquity|classical times]] was ''Háidēs'' ({{lang|grc|Ἅιδης}}). [[late antiquity|Later]] the iota became silent, [[Byzantine Greek|then]] a [[iota subscript|subscript marking]] ({{lang|grc|ᾍδης}}), and [[modern Greek|finally]] omitted entirely ({{lang|el|Άδης}}).<ref>See [[Ancient Greek phonology]] and [[modern Greek]].</ref>

Perhaps from fear of pronouncing his name, around the 5th century BC, the Greeks started referring to Hades as [[Pluto (mythology)|Plouton]] ({{lang|grc|[[wikt:Πλούτων|Πλούτων]], }} ''Ploútōn'', {{IPA|grc|ˈpluː.tɔːn|}}), with a root meaning "wealthy", considering that from the abode below (i.e., the soil) come riches (e.g., fertile crops, metals and so on).<ref>Bailly, ''s.v.'' Πλούτων.</ref> Plouton became the Roman god who both rules the underworld and distributed riches from below. This deity was a mixture of the Greek god Hades and the [[Eleusis|Eleusinian]] icon Ploutos, and from this he also received a priestess, which was not previously practiced in Greece.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title = Gale Virtual Reference|url = http://go.galegroup.com|access-date = 2015-11-18|archive-date = 2011-05-21|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110521185035/http://go.galegroup.com/|url-status = dead}}</ref> More elaborate names of the same genre were ''Ploutodótēs'' ({{lang|grc|Πλουτοδότης}}, {{IPA|grc|pluː.toˈdo.tεːs|}}) or ''Ploutodotḗr'' ({{lang|grc|Πλουτοδοτήρ}}, {{IPA|grc|pluː.to.doˈtεːr|}}), meaning "giver of wealth".<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', 806, note. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/AeschylusPrometheus.html Translated by Smyth, Herbert Weir (1922)] in [[Loeb Classical Library]], Volume 145.</ref>

[[Epithet#Religion|Epithets]] of Hades include ''Agesander'' ({{lang|grc|Ἀγήσανδρος}}, {{IPA|grc|aˈgεː.san.dros|}}) and ''Agesilaos'' ({{lang|grc|Ἀγεσίλαος}}<!-- sic; not -γη- -->, {{IPA|grc|a.geˈsi.la.os|}}),<ref name="DGRBM">{{Cite book |last=Schmitz |first=Leonhard |author-link=Leonhard Schmitz |contribution=Agesander (1) |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=William |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |volume=1 |pages=68 |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |place=Boston |year=1867 |contribution-url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0077.html |title-link=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |access-date=2013-11-26 |archive-date=2013-10-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012030356/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0077.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> both from ''ágō'' ({{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἄγω|ἄγω]]}}, "lead", "carry" or "fetch") and ''anḗr'' ({{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἀνήρ|ἀνήρ]]}}, "man") or ''laos'' ({{lang|grc|[[wikt:λαός|λαός]]}}, "men" or "people"), describing Hades as the god who carries away all.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Liddell |first1=Henry |author-link=Henry Liddell |first2=Robert |last2=Scott |author-link2=Robert Scott (philologist) |title=A Greek-English Lexicon |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1996 |location=Oxford |pages=s.v |isbn=0-19-864226-1|title-link=A Greek-English Lexicon }}</ref><ref>[[Callimachus]], ''Hymn. in Pallad.'' 130, with [[Friedrich Spanheim]]'s note; [[Hesychius of Alexandria]] ''s.v.''; Aeschyl. ''ap. Athen.'' iii. p. 99</ref> [[Nicander]] uses the form ''Hegesilaus'' ({{lang|grc|Ἡγεσίλαος}}, {{IPA|grc|hεː.geˈsi.la.os|}}).<ref>[[Nicander]], ''ap. Athen.'' xv. p. 684</ref>

He was also referred to as ''Zeus katachthonios'' (Ζεὺς καταχθόνιος, {{IPA|grc|zdeu̯s ka.taˈkʰtʰo.ni.os|}}),<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*z%3Aentry+group%3D1%3Aentry%3D*zeu%2Fs "Ζεύς"] in: ''An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon'' by Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott.</ref> meaning "the Zeus of the underworld", by those avoiding his actual name, as he had complete control over the underworld.<ref name=":3" />

==Mythology==
===Early years===
[[File:Pinax with Persephone and Hades Enthroned, 500-450 BC, Greek, Locri Epizephirii, Mannella district, Sanctuary of Persephone, terracotta - Cleveland Museum of Art - DSC08242.JPG|thumb|left|Pinax with Persephone and Hades Enthroned, 500–450 BC, Greek, Locri Epizephirii, Mannella district, Sanctuary of Persephone, terracotta – Cleveland Museum of Art]]

In [[Greek mythology]], Hades, the god of the Greek underworld, was the first-born son of the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]]s [[Cronus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]. He had three older sisters, [[Hestia]], [[Demeter]], and [[Hera]], as well as a younger brother, [[Poseidon]], all of whom had been swallowed whole by their father as soon as they were born. [[Zeus]] was the youngest child and through the machinations of their mother, Rhea, he was the only one that had escaped this fate. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings. After their release, the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged the elder gods for power in the [[Titanomachy]], a divine war. Armed with the [[Cap of invisibility|helm of invisibility]] forged for him by the [[Cyclopes]], Hades with his siblings and other divine allies defeated the Titans and became rulers in their place The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods. Following their victory, according to a single famous passage in the ''[[Iliad]]'' (''Book XV'', ln.187–93), Hades and his two brothers, Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots<ref>[[Walter Burkert]], in ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'', 1992, (pp 90ff) compares this single reference with the Mesopotamian ''[[Atra-Hasis]]'': "the basic structure of both texts is astonishingly similar." The drawing of lots is not the usual account; [[Hesiod]] (''[[Theogony]]'', 883) declares that Zeus overthrew his father and was acclaimed king by the other gods. "There is hardly another passage in Homer which comes so close to being a translation of an [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] epic," Burkert concludes (p. 91).</ref> for realms to rule. Zeus received the sky, Poseidon received the seas, and Hades received the underworld,<ref>Poseidon speaks: "For when we threw the lots I received the grey sea as my abode, Hades drew the murky darkness, Zeus, however, drew the wide sky of brightness and clouds; the earth is common to all, and spacious Olympus." ''Iliad 15.187''</ref> the unseen realm to which the souls of the dead go upon leaving the world as well as any and all things beneath the earth.

Hades obtained his wife and queen, [[Persephone]], through abduction at the behest of Zeus.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Michael|last2=Hazel|first2=John|year=2002|page=412|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKRDEAeout8C&pg=PA412|title=Who's who in Classical Mythology|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9780415260411|access-date=June 14, 2024}}</ref> This myth is the most important one Hades takes part in;<ref>Grant and Hazel, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IKRDEAeout8C&pg=PA236 p. 236].</ref> it also connected the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]] with the Olympian pantheon, particularly as represented in the ''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]]'', which is the oldest story of the abduction, most likely dating back to the beginning of the 6th century BC.<ref name=":0" /> [[Helios]] told the grieving Demeter that Hades was not an unworthy groom or son-in-law{{efn|The word used in the ancient text, {{lang|grc|{{math|γαμβρός}} }}, translates to both "son-in-law" and "bridegroom".<ref>See [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3Dgambro%2Fs {{lang|grc|{{math|γαμβρός}} }}].</ref>}} given his status among the gods, as her own brother and king on his own right:

{{Blockquote|
But, Goddess, give up your strong grief; let go<br/>
of your infinite anger. Hades isn't an unsuitable<br/>
son-in-law among the gods: Lord of the Many Dead,<br/>
your own brother from the same seed. As for honor,<br/>
he won the third share back when the division was made<br/>
and now lives among those whom he was allotted to rule."
|title=''[[Homeric Hymn]] to [[Demeter]]'' 82–86<ref>Rayor, pp [https://books.google.com/books?id=BbQwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 19–20]</ref>}}

===King of the underworld===
[[File:Aidoneus & Persephone.png|thumb|Hades and Persephone, 1864]]

Despite modern [[connotation]]s of death as evil, Hades was actually more [[altruism|altruistically]]<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DCrat.%3Apage%3D403 |author=Plato |author-link=Plato |title=Cratylus |page=403}}</ref> inclined in mythology. Hades was portrayed as passive and never portrayed negatively; his role was often maintaining relative balance. That said, he was also depicted as cold and stern, and he held all of his subjects equally accountable to his laws.<ref>Grant and Hazel, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IKRDEAeout8C&pg=PA235 p. 235].</ref> Any other individual aspects of his personality are not given, as Greeks refrained from giving him much thought to avoid attracting his attention.<ref name=":3">Tripp, p. 257.</ref>

[[File:Red figure volute krater with scene of the Underworld, follower of the Baltimore Painter, Hermitage.JPG|thumb|Red figure volute krater with scene of the underworld, follower of the Baltimore Painter, Hermitage|alt=|left]]

Hades ruled the dead, assisted by others over whom he had complete authority. The House of Hades was described as full of "guests", though he rarely left the underworld.<ref>Gayley, [https://archive.org/stream/classicmythsinen1911gayl#page/46/mode/2up p. 47].</ref> He cared little about what happened in the world above, as his primary attention was ensuring none of his subjects ever left his domain.

He strictly forbade his subjects to leave his domain and would become quite enraged when anyone tried to leave, or if someone tried to steal the souls from his realm. His wrath was equally terrible for anyone who tried to cheat death or otherwise crossed him, as [[Sisyphus]] and [[Pirithous]] found out to their sorrow. While usually indifferent to his subjects, Hades was very focused on the punishment of these two people; particularly [[Pirithous]], as he entered the underworld in an attempt to steal Persephone for himself, and consequently was forced onto the "Chair of Forgetfulness".<ref name=":3" /> Another myth is about the Greek god [[Asclepius]] who was originally a demigod, son of [[Apollo]] and [[Coronis (lover of Apollo)|Coronis]], a Thessalian princess. During his lifetime, he became a famous and talented physician, who eventually was able to bring the dead back to life. Feeling cheated, Hades persuaded Zeus to kill him with a thunderbolt. After his death, Asclepius was brought to Olympus where he became a god.<ref>Gayley, [https://archive.org/stream/classicmythsinen1911gayl#page/104/mode/2up p. 104].</ref> Hades was only depicted outside of the underworld once in myth, and even that is believed to have been an instance where he had just left the [[Gates of hell#Gates in the Greco-Roman world|gates of the underworld]], which was when [[Heracles]] shot him with an arrow as Hades was attempting to defend the city of Pylos.<ref name=":6">Tripp, p. 256.</ref> After he was shot, however, he traveled to Olympus to heal. Besides [[Heracles]], the only other living people who ventured to the underworld were also [[Greek hero|hero]]es: [[Odysseus]], [[Aeneas]] (accompanied by the [[Cumaean Sibyl|Sibyl]]), [[Orpheus]], to whom Hades showed uncharacteristic mercy at Persephone's urging, who was moved by Orpheus's music,<ref>Gayley, [https://archive.org/stream/classicmythsinen1911gayl#page/164/mode/2up pp. 165–166].</ref> [[Theseus]] with [[Pirithous]], and, in a late romance, [[Cupid and Psyche|Psyche]]. None of them were pleased with what they witnessed in the realm of the dead. In particular, the Greek war hero [[Achilles]], whom Odysseus conjured with a blood [[libation]], said:
{{Blockquote|<poem>O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying.
I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another
man, one with no land allotted to him and not much to live on,
than be a king over all the perished dead.</poem>|source=Achilles's soul to Odysseus. [[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' 11.488–491 (Lattimore translation)}}

===Abduction of Persephone===
{{Main|Rape of Persephone}}
[[File:Proserpina kidnapped Kircheriano Terme.jpg|thumb|left|Cinerary altar with tabula representing the rape of Proserpina. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century CE.]]
[[Image:Persephone Hades BM Vase E82.jpg|thumb|Persephone and Hades: tondo of an Attic red-figured [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]], ca. 440–430&nbsp;BC]]
[[File:Hades and Persephone, Vergina.jpg|thumb|A fresco showing Hades and Persephone riding in a [[chariot]], from the tomb of Queen [[Eurydice I of Macedon]] at [[Vergina]], Greece, 4th century BC]]
[[File:Hates abduction.jpg|thumb|Oil painting of Hades abducting Persephone. 18th Century. Oil on wood with gilt background. Property of Missing Link Antiques.]]

The consort of Hades was [[Persephone]], daughter of [[Zeus]] and [[Demeter]].<ref>Guirand, p. 190.</ref> Persephone did not submit to Hades willingly, but was abducted by him while picking flowers in the fields of [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]] (her father, Zeus, had previously given Persephone to Hades, to be his wife, as is stated in the first lines of the ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter''). In protest of his act, Demeter cast a curse on the land and there was a great famine; though, one by one, the gods came to request she lift it, lest mankind perish and cause the gods to be deprived of their receiving gifts and sacrifices, Demeter asserted that the earth would remain barren until she saw her daughter again. Zeus then sends for his son, [[Hermes]], and instructs him to go down to the underworld in hopes that he may be able to convince Hades to allow Persephone to return to Earth, so that Demeter might see Persephone and cause the famine to stop. Hermes obeys and goes down to Hades's realm, wherein he finds Hades seated upon a couch, Persephone seated next to him. Hermes relays Zeus's message, and Hades complies, saying, 
{{Blockquote|Go now, Persephone, to your dark-robed mother, go, and feel kindly in your heart towards me: be not so exceedingly cast down; for I shall be no unfitting husband for you among the deathless gods, that am own brother to father Zeus. And while you are here, you shall rule all that lives and moves and shall have the greatest rights among the deathless gods: those who defraud you and do not appease your power with offerings, reverently performing rites and paying fit gifts, shall be punished for evermore.|sign=|source=''Homeric Hymn to Demeter''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:360-369|title=Hymn 2 to Demeter, line 347|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>}}

Afterwards, Hades readies his chariot, but not before he secretly gives Persephone a pomegranate seed to eat; Hermes takes the reins, and he and Persephone make their way to the Earth above, coming to a halt in front of Demeter's temple at Eleusis, where the goddess has been waiting. Demeter and Persephone run towards each other and embrace one another, happy that they are reunited. Demeter, however, suspects that Persephone may have [[Taboo#In religion and mythology|eaten food while down in the underworld]], and so she questions Persephone, saying:
{{Blockquote|My child, tell me, surely you have not tasted any food while you were below? Speak out and hide nothing, but let us both know. For if you have not, you shall come back from loathly Hades and live with me and your [[Zeus|father]], the dark-clouded son of Cronos and be honored by all the deathless gods; but if you have tasted food, you must go back again beneath the secret places of the earth, there to dwell a third part of the seasons every year: yet for the two parts you shall be with me and the other deathless gods. But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring in every kind, then from the realm of darkness and gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods and mortal men. And now tell me how he rapt you away to the realm of darkness and gloom, and by what trick did the strong Host of Many beguile you?|sign=|source=''[[Homeric Hymn]] to [[Demeter]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:398-448|title=Hymn 2 to Demeter, line 398|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>}}

[[File:Hades abducting Persephone.jpg|thumb|Hades abducting [[Persephone]], fresco in the small [[Kingdom of Macedonia|Macedonian]] royal tomb at [[Vergina]], [[Macedonia, Greece]], {{Circa|340 BC}}]]
Persephone does admit that she ate the food of the dead, as she tells Demeter that Hades gave her a pomegranate seed and forced her to eat it. Persephone's eating the pomegranate seed binds her to Hades and the underworld, much to the dismay of Demeter. Zeus, however, had previously proposed a compromise, to which all parties had agreed: of the year, Persephone would spend one third with her husband.<ref>Guirand, p. 175.</ref>

It is during this time, when Persephone is down in the underworld with her husband, that [[winter]] falls upon the earth, "an aspect of sadness and mourning."<ref>Guirand, p. 176.</ref>

===Visitors in the underworld===
The hero [[Orpheus]] once descended into the underworld in search of his late wife [[Eurydice]], who died when a snake bit her. So lovely was the music he played that it charmed even Hades (as well as his wife Persephone), who allowed him to take Eurydice to the land of the living, as long as he did not look back at her on his way out.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph10.htm#484521418 10.1-85]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apolldorus]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.3.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 1.3.2]; Hyginus, ''[[De astronomia]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.7.1 2.7.1]; [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], ''[[Hercules (Seneca)|Hercules Furens]]'' [[s:Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/156|569]]; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/StatiusThebaidVIII.php#anchor_Toc342643142 8.63].</ref>

In another story, [[Theseus]] and [[Pirithous]] pledged to kidnap and marry daughters of [[Zeus]]. Theseus chose [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] and together they kidnapped her and decided to hold onto her until she was old enough to marry. Pirithous chose [[Persephone]].<ref>[[Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''Epitome'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.1.23&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 1.23]</ref> They left Helen with Theseus's mother, [[Aethra (Greek mythology)#Mother of Theseus|Aethra]], and traveled to the underworld. Hades knew of their plan to capture his wife, so he pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast; as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Theseus was eventually rescued by [[Heracles]] but Pirithous was either trapped as punishment for daring to seek the wife of a god for his own or killed by Cerberus, depending on the version of the story.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Epitome]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DEpitome%3Abook%3DE%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D24 1.24]</ref><ref name="plutarchtheseus">Plutarch, Theseus 31 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0067%3Achapter%3D31]</ref>

[[File:Allard Pierson Museum Hades and Persephone 7768.jpg|thumb|left|Hades abducts Persephone, pot made and found in [[Taranto]], 350-325 BC]]
[[Sisyphus]] was a mortal king from [[Corinth]] who was punished in [[Tartarus]] for revealing to the [[River gods (Greek mythology)|river god]] [[Asopus]] the whereabouts of his daughter [[Aegina (mythology)|Aegina]] after [[Zeus]] abducted her,<ref>Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 1.9.3]</ref> and for trying to cheat [[death]] as well. Zeus, angry at Sisyphus for revealing the secret, sent [[Thanatos]] to Sisyphus, but he cleverly cast Death into his own bonds, and as a result no one could die until [[Ares]] freed Thanatos and delivered Sisyphus to him. But still, Sisyphus ordered his wife [[Merope (Pleiad)|Merope]] not to perform any funeral rites for him and what else was accustomed as tribute to the [[Greek underworld|underworld]] gods before he was brought to Hades. After some time that Merope had not offered proper honours, Hades learnt of this, and allowed Sisyphus to return to the world of the living so that he could punish his wife, with the understanding that he would return afterwards. Sisyphus, however, never returned as promised until years later, when he died of old age. Hades punished Sisyphus by making him roll a boulder up a hill in the underworld; but every time he reached the top, the boulder would roll down again and again.<ref>[[Scholia]] on [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=-9EIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA249 6.153]</ref><ref>Morford, Mark P. O.; Lenardon, Robert J. (1999). ''Classical Mythology''. Oxford University Press, pg [https://books.google.com/books?id=ecGXcMRAPXcC&pg=PA491 491]</ref> In another version, it is Persephone who lets him out.<ref>[[Theognis]], frags [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=1.11.2+699-718&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0479 699-718]</ref>

[[Heracles]]'s final labour was to capture Cerberus. First, Heracles went to [[Eleusina#Ancient Eleusina|Eleusis]] to be initiated into the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]]. He did this to absolve himself of guilt for killing the [[centaur]]s and to learn how to enter and exit the underworld alive. He found the entrance to the underworld at [[Taenarum]]. [[Athena]] and [[Hermes]] helped him through and back from Hades. Heracles asked Hades for permission to take Cerberus. Hades agreed as long as Heracles did not harm Cerberus. When Heracles dragged the dog out of Hades, he passed through the cavern [[Acherusia]].
In the myth of [[Admetus]] and [[Alcestis]], after Alcestis chose to die in place of her husband [[Admetus]] in order to save him, [[Heracles]] brought her back from the dead by fighting and defeating Hades.<ref>Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.15&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 1.9.15]</ref> In other versions, like [[Euripides]]'s play ''[[Alcestis]]'', Heracles fought [[Thanatos]] instead.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0088%3Acard%3D1118 1140]</ref> At another time, [[Heracles]] sieged the town of [[Pylos]] and during the fight he wounded Hades, who had sided with the Pylians.<ref>Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.7.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 2.7.3]; [[Pindar]], ''Olympian Odes'' [[s:Odes of Pindar (Myers)/Olympian Odes/9|9.2]]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+6.25.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 6.25.2]; [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], ''[[Hercules (Seneca)|Hercules Furens]]'' [[s:Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/155|559]]</ref> In great pain, Hades went to [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]] to be healed by the physician of the gods, [[Paean (god)|Paean]].<ref>[[Homer]], the ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/2#5.395 5.395-404]</ref>

===Lovers of Hades===
[[Leuce (mythology)|Leuce]] was the most beautiful of the nymphs and a daughter of [[Oceanus]]. Hades fell in love with her and abducted her to the underworld. She lived out the span of her life in his realm, and when she died, the god sought consolation by creating a suitable memorial of their love: in the [[Elysium|Elysian Fields]] where the pious spend their afterlife, he brought a white tree into existence. It was this tree with which Heracles crowned himself to celebrate his [[Descent to the underworld|return from the underworld]].<ref>[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], note to ''[[Eclogues|Eclogue]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0091%3Apoem%3D7%3Acommline%3D61 7.61]: ''Leuce, Oceani filia, inter nymphas pulcherrima fuit. hanc Pluton adamavit et ad inferos rapuit. quae postquam apud eum completo vitae suae tempore mortua est, Pluton tam in amoris, quam in memoriae solacium in Elysiis piorum campis leucen nasci arborem iussit, ex qua, sicut dictum est, Hercules se, revertens ab inferis, coronavit.''</ref>

[[Minthe]] was a [[nymph]] of the [[River gods (Greek mythology)|river]] [[Cocytus]] who became Hades's mistress.<ref>[[Photius I of Constantinople|Patriarch Photius]], ''Lexicon'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=RoRiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA572 μίνθα]</ref> A jealous [[Persephone]] trampled the nymph under her foot, transforming her into [[Mentha|garden mint]] in the process.<ref>[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+8.3.14 8.3.14]</ref><ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:10.652 10.728–730].</ref> According to a scholiast on [[Nicander]], Hades turned his dead lover into the [[Mentha|mint]] herb after Persephone tore her into pieces for sleeping with him.<ref>[[Scholia]] ad [[Nicander|Nicandri]] ''Alexipharmaca'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=Zy2LWzF4v3oC&pg=PA212 375]</ref><ref>[[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]], ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D26%3Aentry%3Dmintha-bio-1 Mintha]</ref> In another version, Hades had kept Minthe as his mistress before he married Persephone, and set her aside afterwards. Minthe boasted of being more beautiful than Persephone, and that Hades would soon take her back. In anger over the [[hubris]] directed toward her daughter, [[Demeter]] trampled Minthe and turned her into mint.<ref>[[Oppian]], ''Halieutica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Oppian/Halieutica/3*.html#482 3.485]</ref>

Theophile was a girl who claimed that Hades loved her and that she was better than Persephone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/182847|title=CIRB 130 - PHI Greek Inscriptions|website=epigraphy.packhum.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2020/03/17/hades-newest-bride-a-remarkable-epitaph-2/|title = Hades' Newest Bride: A Remarkable Epitaph|date = 17 March 2020}}</ref>

===Other works===
[[File:The Abduction of Persephone by Pluto, Amphipolis.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''The Abduction of Persephone by Pluto'', [[Amphipolis]], [[Greece]].]]

Once, when a plague hit [[Aonia]], a region in [[Boeotia]], the people consulted an oracle, and the [[Apollo|god]] replied to them that they needed to make an appeal to the gods of the Underworld and sacrifice two willing young maidens to appease the anger of Hades and Persephone. The girls that were chosen were [[Menippe and Metioche]], the daughters of [[Orion (mythology)|Orion]], who solemnly offered their lives in order to save their countrymen. After invoking the chthonic deities three times, they took their own lives with the shuttles of their looms. Hades and Persephone then took pity in both of them, and transformed their corpses into [[comet]]s.<ref>[[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''Metamorphoses'' [https://topostext.org/work/216#25 25]</ref>

In some versions Hades is considered the master of the goddesses of [[Moirai|Fate]], not his brother Zeus and the god who designates the end and origin of all things and orders the alternation of birth and destruction, the arbiter of life and death. This relationship is very clear in Roman epics like [[Statius]]'s ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'',<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/StatiusThebaidVIII.php#anchor_Toc342643142 8.28-29]</ref> where they are mentioned taking souls to be judged by Hades and inflicting severe punishments or in [[Claudian]]'s ''De raptu Proserpinae''<ref>[[Claudian]], ''De raptu Proserpinae'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_Raptu_Proserpinae/1*.html#p297 1.32-48]</ref> where they appear begging their master not to release the [[Titans]] and saying everything they do is for him, after Hades threatens Zeus to release the Titans against him if he does not give him a wife.

Hades is considered the father of the [[Furies]] in some versions, but the mother's identity varies. in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'' their mother is the night goddess [[Nyx]]<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Aphi%2C0690%2C003%3A7%3A339 6.250]</ref> and in the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'' their mother is Persephone<ref>''[[Orphic Hymns]] 29 to [[Persephone]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=rvSuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 11]</ref> by Hades.<ref>''[[Orphic Hymns]] 70 to the [[Erinyes|Furies]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=rvSuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA151 4-5]</ref> One of the rare occasions when he appears interacting with them is in [[Statius]]'s ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'',<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/StatiusThebaidVIII.php#anchor_Toc342643142 8.73-77]</ref> when Hades orders Tisiphone to punish humans for having invaded the [[Greek underworld|underworld]]. He is said to hate [[Alecto]], even though she is one of his children.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/245#7.286 7.328]</ref>

In contrast to many of his other classical representations the satirical author [[Lucian]] of [[Samosata]] presents Hades in a more positive and even comic way. In his ''Dialogues of the Dead'', he is represented trying to solve problems of some famous mythological figures and one of the most outstanding dialogues is with [[Protesilaus]], one of the Greek heroes killed in the [[Trojan War]]. In this conversation Protesilaus asks him to be reunited with his (still living) lover, and brings up as example that Hades did the same for [[Admetus]] and [[Alcestis]], [[Orpheus]] and [[Eurydice]], and that he himself also knows what being in love is like. Hades is skeptical, but Persephone manages to persuade him.<ref>[[Lucian]], ''Dialogues of the Dead'' [https://pt.calameo.com/read/000107044fc0f01286992 Protesilaus, Pluto and Persephone]</ref>

According to [[Hesiod]], when the monstrous [[Typhon]] attacked the Olympian gods, Hades is said to have trembled in fear in the underworld while [[Zeus]] fought Typhon above.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D820 850]</ref>

In one of [[Plato]]'s dialogues, Socrates talks about Hades as a figure capable of making everyone fall by his enchantments<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DCrat.%3Apage%3D403 403c]</ref> and that is why no one ever leaves the underworld, including the sirens.<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DCrat.%3Asection%3D403d 403d]</ref>

==Cult and epithets==
[[Image:Hades.png|thumb|left|Hades and Cerberus, in ''[[Meyers Konversationslexikon]]'', 1888]]

Hades, as the god of the dead, was a fearsome figure to those still living; in no hurry to meet him, they were reluctant to swear oaths in his name, and averted their faces when sacrificing to him. Since to many, simply to say the word "Hades" was frightening, [[euphemism]]s were pressed into use. Since precious minerals come from under the earth (i.e., the "underworld" ruled by Hades), he was considered to have control of these as well, and as such the Greeks referred to him as Πλούτων (Greek ''Plouton''; Latin PLVTO, [[Pluto (mythology)|''Pluto'']], "the rich one"). This title is derived from the word ''Ploutos'' ({{langx|grc|Πλοῦτος|Ploútos|wealth, riches}}, {{IPA|grc|ˈpluː.tos|}}). [[Sophocles]] explained the notion of referring to Hades as ''Plouton'' with these words: "the gloomy Hades enriches himself with our sighs and our tears." In addition, he was called Clymenus ({{lang|grc|Κλύμενος}}, ''Klýmenos'', 'infamous', {{IPA|grc|ˈkly.me.nos|}}), Polydegmon ({{lang|grc|Πολυδέγμων}}, ''Polydégmon'',  'host of many', {{IPA|grc|po.lyˈdeg.mɔːn|}}), and perhaps [[Eubuleus]] ({{lang|grc|Εὐβουλεύς}}, ''Eubouleús'',  'good counsel', {{IPA|grc|eu̯.buːˈleu̯s|}}),<ref>The name ''Eubouleos'' is more often seen as an [[epithet]] for [[Dionysus]] or [[Zeus]].</ref> all of them euphemisms for a name that was unsafe to pronounce, which evolved into [[epithet]]s.

He spent most of the time in his dark realm. Formidable in battle, he proved his ferocity in the famous [[Titanomachy]], the battle of the Olympians versus the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]], which established the rule of Zeus.

Feared and loathed, Hades embodied the inexorable finality of death: "Why do we loathe Hades more than any god, if not because he is so adamantine and unyielding?" The rhetorical question is [[Agamemnon]]'s.<ref>''[[Iliad]]'', ix</ref> Hades was not, however, an evil god, for although he was stern, cruel, and unpitying, he was still just. Hades ruled the underworld and was therefore most often associated with death and feared by men, but he was not Death itself — it is [[Thanatos]], son of [[Nyx]] and [[Erebus]], who is the actual personification of death, although Euripides's play "''Alkestis''" states fairly clearly that Thanatos and Hades were one and the same deity, and gives an interesting description of Hades as being dark-cloaked and winged.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Euripides Alcestis: With Introduction and Commentary|last=Parker|first=L. P. E.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=9780191569012|location=Oxford|pages=109}}</ref>

When the Greeks propitiated Hades, they banged their hands on the ground to be sure he would hear them.<ref>"Hades never knows what is happening in the world above, or in Olympus, except for fragmentary information which comes to him when mortals strike their hands upon the earth and invoke him with oaths and curses" ([[Robert Graves]], ''The Greek Myths'' 1960: §31.e).</ref> Black animals, such as sheep, were sacrificed to him. While some suggest the very vehemence of the rejection of [[human sacrifice]] expressed in myth might imply an unspoken memory of some distant past, there is no direct evidence of such a turn.<ref>Dennis D. Hughes, ''Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece'' (London: Routledge, 2013), 49-70. {{ISBN|9781134966394}}
books.google.com/books?id=1iktBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA49</ref> The blood from all [[chthonic]] sacrifices including those to propitiate Hades dripped into a pit or cleft in the ground. The person who offered the sacrifice had to avert his face.<ref>Kerényi 1951, p. 231.</ref>

One ancient source says that he possessed the [[Cap of invisibility]]. His chariot, drawn by four black horses, made for a fearsome and impressive sight. These beasts were variously named as, according to [[Claudian]]: [[Orphnaeus]], [[Aethon]], [[Nycteus]] and [[Alastor]] while other authors listed also: Nonius, Ametheus, Abastor, Abetor and Metheus. His other ordinary attributes were the narcissus and cypress plants, the [[Pluto (mythology)#The keys of Pluto|Key of Hades]] and Cerberus, the three-headed dog.<ref>{{cite book|last1=See|first1=Sally|title=The Greek Myths|date=2014|publisher=S&T|page=21|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=onDwBQAAQBAJ&q=hades+attributes+narcissus+cypress&pg=PA21|access-date=18 January 2017}}</ref> In certain portraits, snakes also appeared to be attributed to Hades<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/snakesymbolism.html|title=Snake Symbolism|date=1998|website=The Psychology of Dreams|access-date=5 September 2017}}</ref> as he was occasionally portrayed to be either holding them or accompanied by them. This is believed to hold significance as in certain classical sources Hades ravished Kore in the guise of a snake, who went on to give birth to Zagreus-Dionysus.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Morgantina Studies, Volume I: The Terracottas|last=Bell|first=Malcolm|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1982|isbn=9781400853243|pages=88, 89, 90, 106, 168, 254}}</ref> While bearing the name 'Zeus', Zeus Olympios, the great king of the gods, noticeably differs from the Zeus Meilichios, a decidedly chthonian character, often portrayed as a snake,<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Companion to Greek Religion|last=Ogden|first=Daniel|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2008|isbn=978-0470997345}}</ref> and as seen beforehand, they cannot be different manifestations of the same god,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Coping With the Gods: Wayward Readings in Greek Theology|last=Versnel|first=Henk|publisher=Brill|year=2011|isbn=978-90-04-20490-4|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004204904.i-594|s2cid=220830615 }}</ref> in fact whenever 'another Zeus' is mentioned, this always refers to Hades.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Different God?: Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism|last=Schlesier|first=Renate|publisher=Freie University|year=2012|isbn=9783110222357|location=Berlin, Germany.|pages=27, 28}}</ref> Zeus [[Meilichios]] and Zeus [[Eubuleus|Eubouleus]] are often referred to as being alternate names for Hades.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization|last=Hornblower, Spawforth, Eidinow|first=Simon, Antony, Esther|publisher=OUP Oxford|year=2014|isbn=9780191016752|location=Oxford|pages=354}}</ref>

The philosopher [[Heraclitus]], unifying opposites, declared that Hades and [[Dionysus]], the very essence of indestructible life ''([[Life|zoë]])'', are the same god.<ref>Heraclitus, encountering the festival of the ''Phallophoria'', in which [[phalli]] were paraded about, remarked in a surviving fragment: "If they did not order the procession in honor of the god and address the phallus song to him, this would be the most shameless behavior. But Hades is the same as Dionysos, for whom they rave and act like [[bacchantes]]", Kerényi 1976, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA239 pp. 239–240].</ref> Among other evidence, [[Karl Kerényi]] notes in his book<ref name="Kerényi 1991">{{Cite book|title=Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter|last=Kerényi|first=Karl|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1991|isbn=9780691019154}}</ref> that the Homeric Hymn To Demeter,<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerenyi:'' "The Hymn tells us that Persephone was abducted in Nysion pedion, or the Nysian Plain, a plain that was named after the Dionysian mountain of Nysa. Nysa was regarded as the birthplace and first home of Dionysus. The divine marriage of Plouton and Persephone was celebrated on ‘the meadow’. The dangerous region that Kore let herself be lured to in search of flowers was likely not originally connected to Plouton but to Dionysus, as Dionysus himself had the strange surname of ‘the gaping one’, though despite this the notion that the wine god in his quality as the Lord of the underworld does not appear on the surface of the hymn. People would not be able to detect the hidden meaning it if it was not for archaic vase portrayals." ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter [P. 34, 35,].''

"The Hymn to Demeter later mentions that Queen Metaneira of Eleusis later offers the disguised Demeter a beaker of sweet wine, something that Demeter refuses on the grounds that it would be against themis, the very nature of order and justice, for her to drink red wine and she instead invents a new beverage called kykeon to drink instead. The fact that Demeter refuses to drink wine on the grounds that it would be against themis indicates that she is well aware of who Persephone's abductor is, that it is the Subterranean cover name of Dionysus. The critic of the mysteries, the severe philosopher Herakleitos once declared “Hades is the same as Dionysos.” The subterranean wine god was the ravisher, so how could Demeter accept something that was his gift to mankind" [P. 40]</ref> votive marble images<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerenyi:''

"The book later refers to Herakles initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries so that he may enter the underworld. In the iconography after his initiation Herakles in shown wearing a fringed white garment with a Dionysian deerskin thrown over it. Kore is shown with her mother Demeter and a snake twined around the Mystery basket, foreshadowing the secret, as making friends with snakes was Dionysian [P. 58].
The god of the Anthesteria was Dionysus, who celebrated his marriage in Athens amid flowers, the opening of wine jars, and the rising up of the souls of the dead [P. 149]. 
There are two reliefs in a marble votive relief of the fourth century BCE. One depicts Kore crowning her mother Demeter, the deities at the second altar are Persephone and her husband Dionysus as the recumbent god has the features of the bearded Dionysus rather than of Plouton. In his right hand, he raises not a cornucopia, the symbol of wealth, but a wine vessel and in his left, he bears the goblet for the wine. Over their heads an inscription reads “To the God and Goddess” [P. 151, 152]. 
The fragments of a gilded jar cover of the Kerch type show Dionysus, Demeter, little Ploutos, Kore, and a curly-haired boy clad in a long garment, one of the first son's of the Eleusinian king who was the first to be initiated. 
On another vase, Dionysus sits on his omphalos with his thyrsos in his left hand, sitting opposite Demeter, looking at each other severely. Kore is shown moving from Demeter towards Dionysus, as if trying to reconcile them [P. 162]. ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter''</ref> and epithets<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerenyi:''

Kore and Thea are two different duplications of Persephone; Plouton and Theos are duplications of the subterranean Dionysus. The duplication of the mystery god as subterranean father and subterranean son, as father Zagreus and the child Zagreus, husband and son of Persephone, has more to do with the mysteries of Dionysus than with the Eleusinian Mysteries. But a duplication of the chthonian, mystical Dionysus is provided even by his youthful aspect, which became distinguished and classical as the son of Semele from the son of Persephone. Semele, though not of Eleusinian origin, is also a double of Persephone [P. 155]. ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter''</ref> all link Hades to being Dionysus. He also notes that the grieving goddess Demeter refused to drink wine, as she states that it would be against ''themis'' for her to drink wine, which is the gift of Dionysus, after Persephone's abduction, because of this association; indicating that Hades may in fact have been a "cover name" for the underworld Dionysus.<ref>Kerényi 1967, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ds1Wg01wzeYC&pg=PA40 p. 40].</ref> He suggests that this dual identity may have been familiar to those who came into contact with the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Mysteries]].<ref>Kerényi 1976, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA240 p.&nbsp;240].</ref> Dionysus also shared several epithets with Hades such as ''Chthonios'' ("the subterranean"),<ref>Kerényi 1976, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA83 83], [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA199 199].</ref><ref>''Orphic Hymns to the Eumenides,'' 69</ref> ''Eubouleus'' ("Good Counselor"), and ''Euclius'' ("glorious" or "renowned") .

[[File:NAMA 181 Eubouleus 2.JPG|thumb|Bust of [[Eubouleus]] in the [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]].]]
Evidence for a cult connection is quite extensive, particularly in southern Italy, especially when considering the death symbolism included in Dionysian worship;<ref>{{Cite book|title=What is a God?: Studies in the Nature of Greek Divinity|last=Loyd|first=Alan B|publisher=The Classical Press of Wales|year=2009|isbn=978-1905125357}}</ref><ref>Alan B Loyd: "“The identification of Hades and Dionysus does not seem to be a particular doctrine of Herakleitos, nor does it commit him to monotheism. The evidence for a cult connection between the two is quite extensive, particularly in Southern Italy, and the Dionysiac mysteries are associated with death rituals.”</ref> statues of Dionysus<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.my-favourite-planet.de/images/people/d-01/dionysus/athens_dj-28082013-2-0833c_dionysus-eleusis.jpg |title=Image Dionysus|website=my-favourite-planet.de|access-date=9 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.my-favourite-planet.de/images/people/d-01/dionysus/athens_dj-28082013-2-0826d_dionysus-eleusis.jpg|title=Image Dionysus|website=my-favourite-planet.de|access-date=9 April 2023}}</ref> found in the Ploutonion at Eleusis gives further evidence as the statue bears a striking resemblance to the statue of Eubouleus also known as the youthful depiction of the Lord of the underworld. The statue of Eubouleus is described as being radiant but disclosing a strange inner darkness.<ref name="Kerényi 1991"/>

Both Hades and Dionysus were associated with a divine tripartite deity with Zeus.<ref name=":2" /> The Orphics in particular believed that Zeus and Hades were the same deity and portrayed them as such.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Images of Eternal Beauty in Funerary Verse Inscriptions of the Hellenistic Period|last=Wypustek|first=Andrzej|publisher=BRILL|year=2012|isbn=978-9004233188}}</ref><ref>[[:pl:Andrzej Wypustek]] Andrzej Wypustek (Ph.D)] "Votive inscriptions frequently mentioned Pluto but very rarely Hades. Particularly at Eleusis, the Pluto cult was for a deity who, like Persephone and Demeter, was favourably disposed to humans. He was frequently portrayed as a majestic elder with a sceptre, ranch, cornucopia, pomegranate, or drinking vessel in his hand; sometimes he was accompanied by an eagle. His iconography resembled that of Zeus, and especially that of some chthonic personification of the ruler of the gods, above all Zeus Meilichios. We can now go a step further. The nearest equivalent to the contrast between Hades and Pluto as presented in the Theophile epigram can be found in the Orphic Hymns, which are assumed to have originated from the Τελεται of the Dionysiac mystic circles in Asia Minor of the 1st – 3rd centuries. Hymn 41 worships Antaia, i.e. Demeter, the goddess who had searched for her daughter in Hades and discovered her in ‘the sacred bed of the sacred chthonic Zeus’. This formulation in itself is not surprising because the name Zeus (as a synonym for a deity and ruler) was used in reference to Hades-Pluto as the ruler of the underworld. In an interesting, though, sadly, only partly preserved inscription from Appia-Murathanlar in the [[Tembris river|Tembris]] Valley (in 3rd century AD Phrygia) the deceased appeals to “Zeus, god of the dead [φθιηένων*], Pluto” to protect his grave. The term “Chthonic Zeus” could, however, mean something more than a mere euphemism for the name Hades. The idea of defining Zeus as χθόνιος, κατα (χθόνιος) ἄλλος or simply Hades had been present in ancient Greek literature from Homer to Nonnos. This was a sort of extension, aspect or ‘shadow’ of the universal power of Zeus in the kingdom of the dead, where he was the judge of the dead and the also the consort of Persephone-Kore.Moreover, he was the provider of riches, Πλουτοδότης; a personification which was abbreviated to Πλούτων. Among other things, he controlled the crops and it was to him (as well as to Demeter) that the farmers turned for the promise of a good harvest. These are hardly well known traditions today. Some scholars maintain that their obscurity is on account of the secret role they played in the mysteries. ... Therefore, the Orphics worshipped Pluto as the saviour and judge of the deceased, as Zeus χθόνιος. They most likely assumed that Zeus had another embodiment of sorts in the underworld, in Hades. The effect of this assumption was the myth, known to us in several versions, of how Zeus had lain with Persephone (even though she was his daughter). The so-called great Orphic tablet of Thurii refers to the abduction of Persephone by Zeus, who then fathers her son, Dionysus. Their child was revered by the Orphics as Dionysus Zagreus, Dionysus Iacchus, which shows how much importance they attached to the love affair of that particular couple." (''Images of Eternal Beauty in Funerary Verse Inscriptions of the Hellenistic Period''){{Circular reference|date=September 2021}}</ref> This nature and aspect of Hades and Zeus displayed in the Orphic stories is the explanation for why both Hades and Zeus are considered to be the father of Orphic Dionysus-Zagreus.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity|last=Rigoglioso|first=Marguerite|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2010|isbn=978-0-230-11312-1 |quote=Given that Zeus was also sometimes portrayed as having an incarnation in the underworld that was closely identified with Hades, we can read here that Zeus and Hades were essentially two representations of the same god. [...] The idea of Hades equals Dionysus, and that this dual god impregnated Persephone in the Eleusinian tradition, therefore, is in perfect accord with the story that Zeus impregnated her with Dionysus in Orphic myth, given that Hades equals Zeus, as well. Moreover, what we see from this esoteric complex is that, in seeding Persephone, Zeus/Hades/Dionysus created what Kerenyi perceptively calls 'a second, a little Dionysus,' a 'subterranean Zeus.'}}</ref> Orphics also described Zagreus as the son of Hades, while also regarding Zagreus as an aspect of Dionysus.{{sfn|Collard|O'Sullivan|2013|p=297}} The role of unifying Hades, Zeus and Dionysus as a single tripartite god was used to represent the birth, death and resurrection of a deity and to unify the 'shining' realm of Zeus and the dark realm of Hades that lay beneath the Earth.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The God who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited|last=Taylor-Perry|first=Rosemarie|publisher=Barnes & Noble|year=2003|isbn=9780875862309|pages=4, 22, 91, 92, 94, 168}}</ref><ref>Rosemarie Taylor-Perry: "“Interestingly it is often mentioned that Zeus, Hades and Dionysus were all attributed to being the exact same god... Being a tripartite deity Hades is also Zeus, doubling as being the Sky God or Zeus, Hades abducts his 'daughter' and paramour Persephone. The taking of Kore by Hades is the act which allows the conception and birth of a second integrating force: Iacchos (Zagreus-Dionysus), also known as Liknites, the helpless infant form of that Deity who is the unifier of the dark underworld (chthonic) realm of Hades and the Olympian ("Shining") one of Zeus.”</ref>

Among the other appellations under which Hades or Pluto is generally known, are the following:<ref>{{source-attribution|{{Cite book|title=A Classical Manual, being a Mythological, Historical and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil with a Copious Index|last=Murray|first=John|year=1833|location=Albemarle Street, London|pages=5–6}}}}</ref>

''In Greek:''

*'''Adesius''', his name in [[Latium]]. It is expressive of ''the grace''.
*'''Agelastus''', from his ''melancholy'' countenance.
*'''Agesilaus''', expressive of his ''attracting'' all ''people'' to his empire.
*'''Agetes''' o'''r Hegetes''', a name assigned to him by [[Pindar]], as to one who ''conducts''.
*'''Aidoneus''', as used by [[Plutarch]] in a euhemerised version of the story of Pirithous's failed abduction of Persephone in which the god is recast as a king of the [[Molossians]].<ref name=plutarchtheseus />
*'''Axiocersus''', or the ''shorn god'', a name of Pluto in the mysteries of the [[Cabeiri|Cabiri]]: he was there represented as ''without hair''.
*'''Iao''', his name at Clares, a town of [[Ionia]].
*'''Moiragetes''', his name as ''guide'' of ''the Fates''.
*'''Ophieus''', his name as the ''blind god'' among the [[Messenia (ancient region)|Messenians]]: it was derived from their dedicating certain [[Augur]]s to him, whom they deprived of sight at the moment of their birth.

''In Latin or Etruscan:''

*'''Altor''', from ''alo'', to nourish.
*'''[[Februus]]''', from ''Februa'', signifying the sacrifices and purifications adopted in funeral rites.
*'''Feralis Deus''', the ''dismal'' or ''cruel'' god.
*'''Lactum''', his name among the [[Sarmatians]].
*'''Larthy Tytiral''', ''sovereign of Tartarus'', his name in [[Etruria]].
*'''Mantus''' or '''Manus''', the diminutive of ''[[Summanus]]'', an Etruscan epithet.
*'''Niger Deus''', ''black god'', his epithet as god of the Infernal Regions.
*'''Opertus''', the ''concealed''.
*'''Postulio''', a name assigned to him by [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]], under which he was worshipped on the shores of the lake Curtius, from the circumstance of the earth's having opened at that spot, and of the [[Haruspex|Aruspices]] having presumed that the King of Death thus asked for (''postula'', I ask,) sacrifices.
*'''Profundus Jupiter''', ''deep'' or ''lower [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]]'', from his being sovereign of the ''deep'', or ''infernal'' regions.
*'''Quietalis''', from ''quies'', rest.
*'''Rusor''', because all things ''return'' eventually to the earth.
*'''Salutaris Divus''', a name assigned to him when he restored the dead to life. Whenever the gods wished to re-animate a body, Pluto let fail some drops of nectar from his urn upon the favoured person: this may account for his being sometimes represented with an inverted vase.
*'''Saturnius''', from his father ''Saturn.''
*'''[[Soranus (mythology)|Soranus]]''', his name among the [[Sabines]], in the temple dedicated to him on [[Monte Soratte|Mount Soracte]].
*'''Stygius''', from the river Styx.
*'''[[Summanus]]''', from ''summus manium'', prince of the dead.
*'''Tellumo''', a name derived from those treasures which Pluto possesses in the recesses of the earth. Tellumo denotes (according to Varro) the ''creative'' power of the earth, in opposition to Tellus the ''productive''.
*'''Uragus''', expressive of his power over ''fire''.
*'''Urgus''', from ''urgeo'', to impel.

''In Egypt:''

*'''Amenthes''', a name of Pluto among the [[Egyptians]]. [[Plutarch]] informs us, that the word ''Amenthes'' has a reference to the doctrines of the [[metempsychosis]], and signifies the "place which gives and receives";' on the belief that some vast gulf was assigned as a receptacle to the souls, which were about to animate new bodies.

==Artistic representations==
[[File:Hades Persephone Tomb of Orcus II.jpg|thumb|Fresco of Hades and Persephone, [[Tomb of Orcus]] II, Montarozzi, [[Tarquinia]], 4th century BC]]
Hades was depicted infrequently in artwork, as well as mythology, because the Greeks were so afraid of him.<ref name=":3" /> His artistic representations, which are generally found in Archaic pottery, are not even concretely thought of as the deity; however at this point in time it is heavily believed that the figures illustrated are indeed Hades.<ref name=":0" /> He was later presented in the classical arts in the depictions of the [[Rape of Persephone]].<ref>[http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K14.6.html The Rape of Persephone] ''Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, Italy ''</ref> Within these illustrations, Hades was often young, yet he was also shown as varying ages in other works.<ref name=":0" /> Due to this lack of depictions, there were not very strict guidelines when representing the deity.<ref name=":0" /> On pottery, he has a dark beard and is presented as a stately figure on an "ebony throne."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/hades-greek-god-underworld/|title=Hades the Greek God of the Underworld, Hades the unseen|website=www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com|date=10 June 2010|access-date=2015-11-18}}</ref> His attributes in art include a bident (less commonly, a scepter), a helm, cornucopias, roosters,<ref>Hansen and Hansen, [https://books.google.com/books?id=a-NmaO-kM2UC&pg=PA183 p. 183].</ref> and a key. They key plays a doubly symbolic role in that it represents his control over the underworld and acts as a reminder that the gates of the underworld were always locked so that souls could not leave.<ref>Tripp, p. 257; Grant and Hazel, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IKRDEAeout8C&pg=PA235 p. 235]</ref> Even if the doors were open, Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the underworld, ensured that, while all souls were allowed to enter into the underworld freely, none could ever escape.<ref>Tripp, p. 258.</ref> Cerberus is a very integral symbol of Hades so much so that when Cerberus is depicted, the depiction very rarely portrays him without Hades. Sometimes, artists painted Hades as looking away from the other gods, as he was disliked by them as well as humans.<ref name=":0" />

As [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], he was regarded in a more positive light. He holds a [[cornucopia]], representing the gifts he bestows upon people as well as fertility, which he becomes connected to.<ref name=":0" /><!--This reference does not support the claim in any way:<ref name='CAHADES'>{{cite journal | first=Emily | last=Vermeule | title=Mythology in Mycenaean Art | date=1958-12-01 | jstor =3293967 | journal =The Classical Journal |volume=54 |issue=3 | pages =97–108 }}</ref>--> <!--this has already been noted twice:Hades is also mentioned in ''The Odyssey,'' when Odysseus visits the underworld as part of his journey. However, in this instance it is the realm of Hades, rather than the god.-->

==Realm of Hades==
[[Image:Cumae.gif|thumb|Aeneas's journey to Hades through the entrance at Cumae mapped by [[Andrea de Jorio]], 1825]]
{{Main|Greek underworld|Hades in Christianity}}
In older Greek myths, the realm of Hades is the misty and gloomy<ref name="ReferenceA">[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]]</ref> abode of the dead (also called [[Erebus]]<ref name="ReferenceA"/>) where all mortals go when they die. Very few mortals could leave Hades once they entered. The exceptions, [[Heracles]] and [[Theseus]], are heroic.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ddESCOm09QEC&q=Very+few+mortals+could+leave+Hades+once+they+entered.Heracles+and+Theseus+did&pg=PA131|title=Gleanings: Essays 1982-2006|last=Downing|first=Christine|date=June 2006|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-0-595-40036-2|language=en}}</ref> Even Odysseus in his ''[[Nekyia]]'' (''Odyssey'', xi) calls up the spirits of the departed, rather than descend to them. Later [[Greek philosophy]] introduced the idea that all mortals are judged after death and are either rewarded or cursed.{{Citation needed|date=January 2015}}

There were several sections of the realm of Hades, including [[Elysium]], the [[Asphodel Meadows]], and [[Tartarus]]. The mythographer [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], describes Tartarus as "a gloomy place in Hades as far distant from Earth, as Earth is distant from the sky."<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.2 1.1.2].</ref> Greek [[mythography|mythographer]]s were not perfectly consistent about the geography of the [[afterlife]]. A contrasting myth of the afterlife concerns the [[Hesperides|Garden of the Hesperides]], often identified with the [[Fortunate Isles|Isles of the Blessed]], where the blessed heroes may dwell.

In [[Roman mythology]], the entrance to the underworld located at [[Avernus]], a crater near [[Cumae]], was the route [[Aeneas]] used to descend to the realm of the dead.<ref>''[[Aeneid]]'', book 6.</ref> By [[synecdoche]], "Avernus" could be substituted for the underworld as a whole. The ''[[di inferi]]'' were a collective of underworld divinities.

For Hellenes, the deceased entered the underworld by crossing the [[Styx]], ferried across by [[Charon (mythology)|Charon]] (kair'-on), who charged an ''[[obolus]],'' a [[Charon's obol|small coin for passage placed in the mouth]] of the deceased by pious relatives. [[poverty|Paupers]] and the friendless gathered for a hundred years on the near shore according to Book VI of Vergil's [[Aeneid]]. Greeks offered propitiatory [[libation]]s to prevent the deceased from returning to the [[Upper World (Greek)|upper world]] to "haunt" those who had not given them a proper burial. The far side of the river was guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed dog defeated by [[Heracles]] (Roman [[Hercules]]). Passing beyond Cerberus, the shades of the departed entered the land of the dead to be judged.

The five rivers of the realm of Hades, and their symbolic meanings, are [[Acheron]] (the river of sorrow, or woe), [[Cocytus]] (lamentation), [[Phlegethon]] (fire), [[Lethe]] (oblivion), and [[Styx]] (hate), the river upon which even the gods swore and in which Achilles was dipped to render him invincible. The Styx forms the boundary between the upper and lower worlds. See also [[Eridanos (mythology)|Eridanos]].

The first region of Hades comprises the [[Asphodel Meadows|Fields of Asphodel]], described in ''[[Odyssey]]'' xi, where the shades of heroes wander despondently among lesser spirits, who twitter around them like bats. Only [[libation]]s of blood offered to them in the world of the living can reawaken in them for a time the sensations of humanity.

Beyond lay [[Erebus]], which could be taken for a euphonym of Hades, whose own name was dread. There were two pools, that of [[Lethe]], where the common souls flocked to erase all memory, and the pool of [[Mnemosyne]] ("memory"), where the initiates of the Mysteries drank instead. In the forecourt of the palace of Hades and Persephone sit the three judges of the underworld: [[Minos]], [[Rhadamanthus]], and [[Aeacus]]. There at the [[wikt:trivium#Latin|trivium]] sacred to [[Hecate]], where three roads meet, souls are judged, returned to the [[Fields of Asphodel]] if they are neither virtuous nor evil, sent by the road to Tartarus if they are impious or evil, or sent to [[Elysium]] (Islands of the Blessed) with the "blameless" heroes.

In the [[Sibylline oracles]], a curious hodgepodge of Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian elements, Hades again appears as the abode of the dead, and by way of [[folk etymology]], it even derives ''Hades'' from the name [[Adam and Eve|Adam]] (the first man), saying it is because he was the first to enter there.<ref>''Sibylline Oracles'' I, 101–3</ref> Owing to its appearance in the [[New Testament]] of the [[Bible]], Hades also has a distinct meaning in [[Christianity]].

==Genealogy==
{{Family tree of the Olympians|title=Hades's family tree|collapsed=no|cap_hade=y}}

==In popular culture==
{{main|Hades in popular culture}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths|Religion}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
*[[Angra Mainyu]]
*[[Ereshkigal]]
*[[Ghosts in Mesopotamian religions]]
*[[Irkalla]]
*[[Last Judgment]]
*[[Osiris]]
*[[Saveasi'uleo]]
*[[Shiva]]
*[[The Golden Bough (mythology)]]
*[[Yama (East Asia)]]
*[[Pluto]]
{{div col end}}
*[[Varuna]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
===Ancient===
{{refbegin|40em}}
*[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Homer]], ''The Iliad with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes''. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Homer]], ''The Odyssey of Homer'', translated by Lattimore, Richard, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0061244186}}.
*[[Homer]]; ''The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes''. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Homeric Hymns|''Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2)'']], in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:1-39 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Pindar]], ''The Odes of Pindar'' including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0161%3Abook%3DN. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Euripides]], ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'' in ''Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs.'' Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1994. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0088 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Theognis]], in ''Elegy and Iambus. with an English Translation by. J. M. Edmonds.'' Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 1. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0479%3Avolume%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes.'' Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.1.1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Strabo]], [[Geographica|''Geography'']], translated by Horace Leonard Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. (1924). [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/home.html LacusCurtis], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D1 Books 6–14, at the Perseus Digital Library]
*[[De astronomia|Hyginus]], ''Astronomica from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/207 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*[[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). [https://topostext.org/work/216 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*[[Statius]], [[Thebaid (Latin poem)|''Thebaid'']]. Translated by Mozley, J. H. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928.
*[[Oppian]], ''Halieutica'' in [[Oppian]], [[Colluthus]], [[Tryphiodorus]]. Oppian, Colluthus, and Tryphiodorus. Translated by A. W. Mair. Loeb Classical Library 219. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928. [https://topostext.org/work/524 Online version at topos text.]
*[[Claudian]], ''Rape of Persephone'' in ''Claudian: Volume II. Translated by Platnauer, Maurice.'' [[Loeb Classical Library]] Volume 136. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1922.
*[[Lucian]], ''Dialogues of the Dead. Dialogues of the Sea-Gods. Dialogues of the Gods. Dialogues of the Courtesans'', translated by M. D. MacLeod, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 431, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], 1961. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99475-1}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL431/1961/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press]. [https://archive.org/details/lucianvolviiloeb00luci/page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive].
{{refend}}

===Modern===
{{refbegin|40em}}
*{{cite book |last1=Anatole |first1=Bailly |title=Dictionnaire Grec-Français |date=1963 |edition=26th |url=https://archive.org/details/BaillyDictionnaireGrecFrancais/ |access-date=May 15, 2020 }}
*{{cite book |last1=Beekes |first1=Robert S. P. |author-link=Robert S. P. Beekes |editor1-last=Jasanoff |editor1-first=Jay |editor2-last=Melchert |editor2-first=H. Craig |editor3-last=Oliver |editor3-first=Lisi |editor1-link=Jay Jasanoff |editor2-link=Craig Melchert |title=Mír curad: Studies in honor of Calvert Watkins |date=1998 |publisher=[[University of Innsbruck|Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck]] |pages=17–28 |chapter=Hades and Elysion }}
*[[Robert S. P. Beekes|Beekes, Robert S. P.]] (2009), ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Leiden: E.J. Brill.
*Bell, Malcolm, ''Morgantina Studies, Volume I: The Terracottas,'' Princeton University Press, 1982. {{ISBN|9781400853243}}.
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Collard |editor-first1=Christopher |editor-last2=O'Sullivan |editor-first2= Patrick Dominic |year=2013 |title=Euripides: Cyclops and Major Fragments of Greek Satyric Drama |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn= }}
*Dixon-Kennedy, Mike, ''Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology'', ABC-CLIO (December 1, 1998). {{ISBN|978-1576070949}}. [https://archive.org/stream/MikeDixonKennedy.......encyclopediaOfGrecoRomanMythologybyHouseOfBooks/MikeDixonKennedy.......encyclopediaOfGreco-romanMythologybyHouseOfBooks#page/n1/mode/2up Internet Archive]
*Gantz, Timothy, ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
*[[Charles Mills Gayley|Gayley, Charles Mills]], ''The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art, Based Originally on Bulfinch's "Age of fable" (1855)'', Ginn and Company, 1911. [https://archive.org/stream/classicmythsinen1911gayl#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive].
*Guirand, Felix, ''Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology'', Batchworth Press Limited, 1959.
*{{Cite book|title = Who's Who in Classical Mythology|last1 = Grant|first1 = Michael|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 2002|isbn = 0415260418|last2 = Hazel|first2 = John}}
*Hansen, William, William F. Hansen, ''Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans'', Oxford University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|9780195300352}}.
*Hughes, Dennis D. (2013) ''Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece''. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|9781134966394}}
*[[Vyacheslav Ivanov (philologist)|Ivanov, Vyacheslav V.]], [http://www.pies.ucla.edu/IESV/1/VVI_Nevide_etc.pdf "Old Novgorodian ''Nevide,'' Russian ''nevidal’'' : Greek ἀίδηλος"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105092040/http://www.pies.ucla.edu/IESV/1/VVI_Nevide_etc.pdf |date=2017-01-05 }} In ''UCLA Indo European Studies Volume 1'' edited by Vyacheslav V. Ivanov and Brent Vine, July 1999. pp.&nbsp;283–293.
*[[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Carl]] (1951), ''The Gods of the Greeks'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1951.
*[[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Carl]] (1967), ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'', Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-01915-0}}.
*[[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Carl]] (1976), ''Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life'', Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-09863-8}}.
*[[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]], ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0104 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*Tripp, Edward, ''Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology'', Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). {{ISBN|069022608X}}.
*[[Martin Litchfield West|West, M. L.]], ''European Poetry and Myth'', OUP, 2007. {{ISBN|9780199280759}}.
*Diane J. Rayor, ''The Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes'', updated edition, [[University of California Press]] 2014, {{ISBN|978-0-520-28211-7}}.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
;Maps of the underworld (Greek mythology)
*[http://www.thanasis.com/undrmapr.jpg Color map]
*[http://virgil.org/maps/images/cumae.gif Ancient map]

;The God Hades
*[https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html HADES from The Theoi Project]
*[https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/HaidesGod.html HADES from The Theoi Project part 2]
*[http://www.maicar.com/GML/Hades.html HADES from Greek Mythology Link]
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2847 ''Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades''] by [[Flavius Josephus]]

{{Greek myth (Olympian)}}
{{Greek religion}}
{{Greek mythology (deities)}}
{{hell}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hades| ]]
[[Category:Chthonic beings]]
[[Category:Underworld gods]]
[[Category:Greek death gods]]
[[Category:Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Earth gods]]
[[Category:Abundance gods]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Kings in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Eleusinian Mysteries]]
[[Category:Deities in the Iliad]]
[[Category:Deities in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Characters in the Odyssey]]
[[Category:Residents of the Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Children of Cronus]]
[[Category:Mythological rapists]]