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 | --mythology and folklore-- Pluto was named for the Roman god Pluto, but as he was based on the Hades of Greece mythology, I will give information pertaining to Hades instead. Article excerpted from Greek Mythology and Religion (Gods of the Earth: Hades - Charon), published by Haïtalis, texts by Maria Mavromataki. "Hades was the son of Cronus and Rhea, and the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. After the conclusion of the Battle of Giants, the three brothers shared out the universe, and sovereignty over the Underworld fell to Hades lot. [They said he was always the unlucky one of the three brothers] The most characteristic feature of the god of darkness that lay beneath the earth was his cynëe, a helmet given to him by the Cyclopes which made him invisble. And sure enough, Hades was enclosed for ever in an invisible, shadowy country beneath the ground. He only emerged once in the land of the living: to abduct Persephone, whom he took as his wife and who spent one third of each year with him [Actually, she spent six months, because before being rescued from the Underworld she ate six pomengrante seeds. Her mother, Demeter, was so sad the six months Persephone was in the Underworld that all the plants died, and was winter. When Persephone returned, Demeter was happy and it was summer.] Persephone's stay in the Underworld was a symbol of the processes going on beneath the surface of the soil which enabled the earth to sprout shoots and grow fruit. Hades thus became connected with abundance in agricultural production and acquired the alternative name of Pluton - that is, he who brings wealth (plutus). Even so, in Greek myths Hades is more closely associated with the concept of death than with that of riches. Immediately after death, the souls of the departed descended into his dark, musty kingdom, which was a kind of perpetual house of imprisonment guarded ceaselessly by Cerberus, Hades's fierce, ruthless and loyal hound. The gates of Hades were reached by crossing the river Acheron and the Acherusian Lake or, depending on local tradition, any one of a large number of rivers or chasms in the earth. In the Underworld itself, however there was only one river, the terrible Styx, in whose name the gods swore inviolable oaths." [I think it is important to note to those of us raised on Western beliefs that the Underworld Hades is ruler of is not, as the 'beneath the earth' description seems to imply to me, hell itself. It is where all the departed go. If you were bad, you were punished, but if you were good, you were rewarded.] Go to the next page for another article on Hades. | |
