Hades

Roman: Pluto

Portrayed by: Michael Golino

Hades is the King of the Underworld. He is also the god of the dead, and the minerals of the earth. His wife is Persephone, the goddess of springtime and daughter of Demeter (Ceres). He is also the brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia.

Appearance
Hades is usually depicted as a tall and muscular god with a very regal appearance. He is usually shown having a long and curly beard of black hair, and holding a scepter with the small figure of a bird sculpted on the top. On pottery, he is usually shown seated on his large throne in the Underworld, with his three headed dog Cerberus sitting at his heels. Persephone, Hades' wife and Queen, sits on a throne beside him.

Hades is described as being the most hated of the gods, to the point where the mere sound of his name evoked fear. As such, he was normally called "Pluton" (Giver of Wealth), rather than by his actual name. It was from this epithet that the Roman's got the name Pluto for Hades' Roman counterpart. Whenever sacrifices were made to him, it was usually in the form of a male or female black sheep. When the sacrifice was being made, the one making the sacrifice had to turn his head away from the sight, for fear of seeing the infernal god.

Hades personality is described as being firm, solemn, fierce, and inflexible. His character was a personification of all the qualities of death: unstoppable and unmoving. Despite this, Hades was not an evil god. He is shown to have a softer side for his wife Persephone, as well as occasionally taking pity on some mortals, such as Orpheus.

One of his epithets is "Rich One", which references his role as the keeper of souls, but also indicates the gems and precious metals found in the earth.

Hades is the only child of Cronus and Rhea not counted among the Twelve Olympians, mainly because he rarely ever visited Mount Olympus (Mavromataki, 1997).

Origins
Hades was one of the six children of the titans Kronos and Rhea. Kronos, then the ruler of Olympus, had feared that his children would grow up to overthrow him. To prevent this, with each child Rhea gave birth to, he would swallow them whole. Hades was one of the children that Kronos managed to swallow, and so Hades grew inside the belly of his father. The final child, Zeus, was kept safe from Kronos, and he eventually grew up and returned to face his father. Zeus forced Kronos to vomit up his siblings, Hades among them. Together, the six Olympians battled the Titans, defeated them, and locked them away in the pits of Tartarus.

After the defeat of the Titans, the three Olympian brothers (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades), decided to draw lots to decide which portion of the cosmos each would rule. It was decided that Zeus would rule the sky, Poseidon would rule the sea, and Hades would rule the dark Underworld, the land of the dead. The earth itself would be ruled over by all three (Davis, 2005).

Persephone
The most famous myth depicting Hades is the abduction of Persephone. Hades, in love with Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, was advised by his brother Zeus to kidnap her. One day, while Persephone was playing in a field of flowers with some nymphs, Hades sprung from the earth in a chariot pulled by four black horses. He grabbed Persephone and took her to the Underworld, forcing her to be his queen. Demeter, in distress from the disappearance of her daughter, searched the earth for her but could find no trace. Demeter's sorrow caused the plants and the trees of the world to die, and eventually Zeus revealed that Hades had taken Persephone. Demeter sped to the Underworld to collect her daughter, but Persephone had already been fed the seeds of a pomegranate by Hades, the seeds of the Underworld. Because of this, she had to spend half of the year on earth with her mother, and the other half in the Underworld with her husband (Hamilton, 2002).

Myths
Hades appears in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice when the former enters the Underworld in order to retrieve the latter. Orpheus pleads to Hades and Persephone to let Eurydice return to the world of the living, and the two immortals are moved. Hades allows Eurydice to follow Orpheus to the exit, but only on the condition that if Orpheus turns to look back at her, Eurydice will be reclaimed by the Underworld. Orpheus agrees, but he is eventually compelled to look back, and Eurydice is returned to the Underworld (Ovid, trans. Kline 2000).

He also is featured briefly in the Twelve Labors of Heracles, in which Heracles' final labor was to wrestle and capture Cerberus, the three headed dog that guarded the gates of the Underworld. Hades allowed Heracles to borrow Cerberus, but only after some coaxing by Persephone, who welcomed Heracles like a brother.

Hades was known for occasionally having sexual encounters with various nymphs. He made one nymph, named Minthe, into his personal concubine. Enraged by this, Persephone trampled Minthe underfoot, turning into the "mint" plant. Hades also once carried off a nymph named Leuce, daughter of the Titan Oceanus. She died in the Underworld, and Hades changed her into a white poplar, and planted her in the fields of Elysium (Atsma, 2014).

Hades is also responsible for the punishment of Sisyphus, a clever king who was able to easily avoid death. First, when Thanatos came to collect him, Sisyphus tied him down and escaped. Then, when he was about to die, he told his wife not to give him his basic funereal rites, so Hades would be unable to take him. Eventually, he was caught by Ares and dragged back to the Underworld. Hades then forced Sisyphus to be compelled to forever push a rock up a tall and steep hill. However, whenever Sisyphus made it to the top, the rock would just roll back down to the bottom on it's own, forcing him to start all over (Buxton, 2004).

Hades was once at odds with Asclepius, originally a mortal blessed by Apollo with the talent of healing, to the point where he could bring souls back from the dead. Hades was angered by this, as the Underworld was slowly growing emptier and emptier by the day. Zeus, to appease Hades, slew Asclepius with a thunderbolt, despite Apollo's protests. Eventually, Zeus revived Asclepius, making him the god of medicine and healing (Atsma, 2014).