Hades was the Lord of the Underworld, assuming this office in the game of dice that he played with his two brothers in the division of the world after the fall of the Titans. Upon acquiring the Underworld as his kingdom, Hades was given a magical helmet. The helmet was forged by the Cyclopses, and would render its wearer invisible to both gods and mortals. The Underworld was the place where the souls of the dead would go to when their physical body died on the world above. The capacity of the Underworld was infinite, ever-growing to accommodate the shades, as they would flock down to the land of death. Hades ruled from his palace in the centre of the Underworld. The palace was hewn from a giant block of the blackest obsidian; its every shape and contour melting into the surrounding darkness.
The Underworld was divided into sections, some better than others, and the souls would go to their designated section according to the kind of life that they had led while alive on earth. The first thing in the Underworld was the river Styx: a black murky river running from the surface, down into the Underworld, and back up to the surface again. The waters were ice cold, and could freeze a person to the bone in no time at all. The entrance to the Underworld was on the other side of the enormous river, and the only way for the souls to make it across was by ferry. Charon was the designated ferryman, being condemned to serve Hades for the rest of eternity. He lived his life as a ferryman on the surface. However, his life was cut short when he made an oath to Hades, and broke it. The consequence of this betrayal was to serve as ferryman to the dead until the end of time. The souls would gather on the bank of the river, and gather onto the ferry once it was moored, each paying the fare of a single copper coin which was placed under their tongue by loved ones at the time of their death. Souls that did not have the fare would often try to swim across the river, not being able to resist the call of Hades. None of the souls ever made it across this way; they would instead be swept away by the current, and lost forever.
The hound Cerberus guarded the entrance to the Underworld. Cerberus had three heads, and was as large as a full grown stag. He was a child of Typhon and Echidna, the monstrous pair that gave birth to every monster to have ever plagued Greece. Hades brought him down to the Underworld and set him at the entrance to prevent anyone but the souls from entering. The souls would drift past Cerberus and through the gates into the land of death.
Beyond the gates were the Fields of Asphodel, where souls would wander aimlessly until it was their turn to stand before the judge of the dead. The fields were dark and featureless. Long grey grass covered the ground, and was never disturbed by a breeze, or the footfalls of the souls. In the Fields of Asphodel was the fountain known as Lethe. A nymph of the same name attended to this fountain. Souls drinking from this fountain would forget all about their lives on the surface, and would be plunged into oblivion, knowing only that they were dead, and that the Underworld was all that was important from that point on.
The Judge of the dead was just beyond the fields. Souls would go one by one to stand before him, and their lives would be reviewed, then judged. The souls that led good and happy lives were granted passage into Elysium, a place of eternal happiness. There was a constant celebration, and everything that the souls would ever want was given to them there. Souls in Elysium were also given the option of being reborn onto the world again. If this option was chosen, and the soul died two more times, being granted passage into Elysium both times; it would be allowed on to the Isle of the Blest. On the Isle was eternal bliss, happiness beyond all comprehension. The Well of Memory was present here, and the souls would drink from it, and immediately remember everything about their past lives, who they were, and their loved ones.
The souls that led lives full of sin were condemned to spend eternity in the Roasting pits. Large pools of molten rock were present here, and various instruments of torture. The Harpies, vicious hags with leather wings and whips with poisoned barbs ran this area of the Underworld. They would torture the souls endlessly, flogging the flesh from the bones, which would grow back in time, only to be flogged off again. This area was hell by every definition, a place of pain and suffering. Souls placed there would remain indefinitely, never to be released or reborn to the world above.
Souls that were not heavy with sin, but considered ‘in between’ were again released into the Fields of Asphodel. Here they would drift endlessly, continuously drinking from Lethe, never able to remember who they were, or what kind of a life that they once had. There was no interaction between souls; they all remained in the state of Limbo while remaining in the fields.
Persephone became the Queen of the Dead (see the story of Demeter), and ruled by Hades’ side. She was a particular favourite among those in the Underworld. Some shades were doomed to perform certain tasks over and over again for the rest of eternity for sins that they had committed while alive. One of these men was Sisyphus. While he was alive, he prepared a feast and invited all of the gods to attend, which they did. The first thing that he served them was a meat stew. The gods enjoyed it, and after they had finished eating it, he told them that the meat in the stew was actually the flesh of his nephew Pelops. This threw the deities into a fit of rage, and they killed him instantly. His punishment for doing this was to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill. Every time he would near the top of the hill, he would lose his hold on the rock, and it would roll all the way down to the bottom. He would walk to the bottom of the hill, and begin all over again. Persephone would travel through the Underworld, and do whatever she could to alleviate the suffering of these souls. One soul named Tantalus would stand waist-deep in a pool of water, with a tree bearing delicious fruit hanging just above his head. Every time he would bend to sip the water, it would shrink away, and his burning thirst would continue. Whenever he would reach for a piece of fruit from the tree, the branch would spring up out of his reach. Persephone took pity on this soul, and would go to him every day; cupping water into her hand, and letting him drink it. She would pluck the fruit from the tree and feed it to him. She was the ray of hope for the souls that their suffering wasn’t entire, that there was somebody who did care for them, and she did as much as she could to help them when they most needed it.
Other minions of the Underworld were the Erinyes, or the Furies. They were born when the blood of the dying Uranus fell onto the surface of the earth. They were Goddesses of Punishment, travelling the world and punishing mankind for his sins. Their names were Alecto, Tisiphone, and Mageara. Each one of them had brass wings that would tinkle like bells as they flew through the air in pursuit of their prey. They carried large whips, with large silver barbs at the end. They always appeared to mortals in their dreams, doing just as much damage that way as if they had been there physically. They would appear in the form of wrinkled old hags from the waist up, and they had the legs of a vulture, with their whips coiled at their sides.
Hecate was the Goddess of Witchcraft, and was head consort to Hades. She was his advisor, and everything she had to say was taken very seriously. She was the most intelligent of all of the deities. She was the daughter of an Egyptian Panther god, and a nymph from a falcon clan. Her beauty was terrifying. She had a sleek feminine body, spotted in the pattern of a panther, and a large pair of feathery wings, which allowed her to fly through the air without a whisper of sound. She commanded the Harpies that lived in the Underworld, as well as every other demonic minion. Her devotion was true to Hades; she would never do anything against him. She was one of the few deities to actually fall in love with and marry a mortal. On one of her trips to the surface, she came across a crippled poet sitting on a rock in a clearing. She hung invisibly in the air over him and watched him work. His appearance was daunting, but the work he created was perfect! It touched her deeply, and was the first thing to ever bring tears to her eyes. She snatched him up in her arms and carried him away. Another surprising thing was that he wasn’t in the least bit shocked at being abducted. He looked up into her eyes and smiled, snuggling into her as she carried him. His name was Thallo, and Hecate loved him unconditionally; anything attempting to harm him would have to get through her first, which wasn’t a task to be taken lightly. With her magic she was able to heal his disability, and they lived together in the Underworld. Worship of Hecate was widespread, but was concentrated on the island of Colchis. This was the island where the Golden Fleece was kept, and the majority of the women on that island were priestesses of the Queen of Witches. The most famous of these women was Medea, daughter of Aetes, King of Colchis. She was the granddaughter of Circe, the most powerful mortal sorceress to ever have existed. With her powers she granted herself immortality, and created an island on which to live, far away from any civilisation.
All of the minions of the Underworld were free to come and go as they pleased, but they rarely left. Of course this applied to Hades, but he chose to always remain in the Underworld, never setting his eyes on the world above. He would never join the gods in their feasts on Mount Olympus, or go to any of the festivals. His only solace was the howls of the tortured souls drifting aimlessly through his kingdom.
