Hades (deity)

Symbols: scepter, narcissus; often depicted with Cerberus the guard dog

Culture: Greco-Roman

Mother: Rhea

Father: Cronos

Siblings: Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, Hestia

Children: not well attested

Hades is the name of the Greek god of the dead and the name of the abode of the dead in the underworld. As god, Hades is one of the six original Olympians, along with his siblings Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia, who were all children of Cronus and Rhea. In the Iliadhe is said to have acquired his dominion over the dead when he drew lots with Zeus and Poseidon after their victory over the Titan gods, among whom were their parents (Homer xv: 187–193). Zeus acquired dominion over the sky, Poseidon over the seas, and Hades over the underworld.

Hades is most often depicted with a cold, grim nature, but he was never considered evil, and his realm, in Greek thought, should not be confused with later notions of hell. His name was feared, and direct invocations and offerings were rare. Classical literature employs many euphemisms and substitutions for his name. Hades was widely known as ploutos, meaning "wealthiest," because, ruling over all of the nameless dead, he held wider dominion than any other god. Some think this name also refers to his dominion over precious metals and gems that were found underground. This name was adopted by the Romans in its latinized version, Pluto.

Hades’s wife was Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She lived with him in the underworld as Queen of the Dead for the winter months each year, depriving mortals during that time of agricultural fertility.

As the realm of the dead, Hades was understood to be a gloomy, underground place. All mortals would eventually wind up in Hades; myths recount only a very few individuals who ever returned to Earth’s surface. The deceased would enter the underworld on a ferry across the River Styx, guided by Charon. The river crossing was guarded by Cerberus, a three-headed dog that made sure that no one escaped back to the mortal world.

In Mythology

The most familiar story of Hades as a god involved his marriage to Persephone. She, like her mother Demeter, was a goddess of grain. Her father Zeus accepted the request of his brother Hades to marry Persephone, but this plan had to be carried out over the objections of Demeter. One day, Zeus tricked Persephone into wandering away from her companions so that Hades could abduct her and take her away to his domain in the underworld. Demeter’s attempts to nullify this forced marriage resulted in a compromise: Persephone would spend approximately half of each year with Hades as Queen of the Dead and half of each year on Earth. This solution was thought to explain the annual agricultural cycle—the earth was fertile during the months when Persephone was present, but it was dead and fallow while she was in the underworld.

The underworld of Hades was not considered a hell-like punishment, yet existence there was not the equivalent of mortal life. The most famous expression of this situation is in Homer’s Odyssey, when the ghost of Achilles is contacted by Odysseus and explains to him: "Don’t try to sell me on death, Odysseus. I’d rather be a hired hand back up on earth, slaving away for some poor dirt farmer, than lord it over all these withered dead" (Homer 11: 500–510).

Among the very few who ever succeeded in leaving the underworld of Hades was Orpheus, who entranced Charon and Cerberus with the beauty of his music when he sought to rescue from Hades his wife Eurydice, who had died from a snakebite. Even the god Hades and the goddess Persephone were moved by his playing and let him leave with his beloved, but on one condition—namely, that the couple not look back during their journey out of the underworld. At the last moment, Orpheus did look back to gaze at Eurydice. While she faded back into the underworld, forever out of reach, Orpheus was allowed to return to the mortal world, although, in some versions of the story, he was soon murdered by his former companions because he was too grief-stricken to make music.

Origins and Cults

There is very little evidence to suggest widespread worship of the god Hades. What little is known includes the banging of hands upon the ground during prayer, presumably so that Hades would know he was being addressed. One of the chief aims of ancient Greek burial customs, however, was to ensure that the deceased safely reach the realm of Hades, lest their so-called shadow remain in the mortal world to haunt and harass its living inhabitants. It was customary to place a coin in the mouth of the deceased prior to burial; it was believed that the coin would serve as a fare to be paid to Charon in exchange for ferrying the individual across the River Styx and into the underworld.

In the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, the word Hades is used as a translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, also imagined as an underground place where the dead maintained a shadowy existence that was, nevertheless, not considered a punishment. Only in the New Testament did the word Hades begin to mean a place of torment or punishment of unworthy souls.

Bibliography

Eddy, Steve. Understand Greek Mythology. Chicago: McGraw, 2012. Print.

Ferry, Luc. The Wisdom of the Myths: How Greek Mythology Can Change Your Life. New York: Harper, 2014. Print.

Grant, Michael, and John Hazel. Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary. New York: Dorset, 1985. Print.

Hamilton, Edith. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. New York: Grand Central, 2011. Print.

Homer. Iliad. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Cambridge: Hackett Classics, 1997. Print.

Homer. Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000. Print.

Murray, A. S. Mythology: Who’s Who in Greek and Roman Mythology. Minneapolis: Wellfleet, 2015. Print.