Hades: Greek God of the Underworld

The Story of Hades

Hades was the eldest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Like his sisters before him, he was swallowed by his father the moment he was born, and he spent his childhood in darkness until Zeus forced Cronus to bring all his children back up into the light.

Hades joined his brothers Zeus and Poseidon in the ten year war against the Titans. The Cyclopes gave him a helmet that made him invisible, and with it he slipped past enemy lines and helped bring the war to an end. When the brothers drew lots to divide the world, Hades received the underworld, the kingdom of the dead.

Ruling the dead was a lonely task, and Hades rarely left his realm. He lived in a dark palace beneath the earth, guarded by the three headed dog Cerberus, who let the dead enter but never leave. The ferryman Charon carried souls across the river Styx, and the judges Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus decided where each soul would spend eternity.

Hades wanted a queen, and he chose Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. With the approval of Zeus, he rose out of the earth in his chariot and carried her off to the underworld. Because she ate pomegranate seeds there, Persephone had to return to him for part of every year, and she ruled at his side as queen of the dead.

Though grim and feared, Hades was not cruel or evil. He was strict, and he did not allow anyone to cheat death, yet he was moved by the music of Orpheus and agreed to release his wife Eurydice. He punished those who had wronged the gods, like Sisyphus, who was condemned to push a boulder uphill forever.

Many Greeks feared even to speak the name Hades, so they called him Plouton, the giver of wealth, because grain grows from the earth and precious metals lie hidden beneath it. He had few temples, but he was honored at the Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra in Epirus. People made offerings to him by pouring them into the ground, and they turned their faces away while they prayed.

Hades remains one of the most misunderstood figures of Greek mythology, often portrayed in modern stories as a villain he never was in the ancient world. The Romans called him Pluto, and the dwarf planet Pluto carries his name. In the Greek imagination he was simply the stern keeper of a kingdom every mortal must one day enter.