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All about Hades: Greek God of the Underworld

12/06/2020
     Hades is the Greek God of the Underworld, he is one of the Triad of Main Gods of Greek Mythology, being them: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. He was personified as the Supreme Judge of his Kingdom.

Hades in Greek Mythology:

     Hades, in Greek Mythology, is the god of the underworld and the dead. Equivalent to the Roman god Pluto, which means the rich and who was also one of his Greek epithets, his name was often used to designate both the god and the kingdom he rules in the earth's underground. It also appears to be called Serapis (god of obscure Egyptian origin). He is considered a "second generation" god by scholars, coming from outside Cronus (Saturn, in Roman theogony) and from Reia, he formed with his five brothers, sons of Cronos and Reia: his daughters Hestia, Demeter and Hera, and the his sons Poseidon and Zeus. 

     He is also known to have abducted the goddess Persephone (Koré or Core) daughter of Demeter, to whom he would have been faithful and with whom he never had children. The symbology of this union brings together two of the main forces and natural resources: the richness of the subsoil that supplies the minerals, and makes the seeds sprout from its core - life and death.

Roman Name of Hades:

     Hades, in Roman (Pluto) tends to play a secondary role in mythology, because the fact that he is the ruler of the World of the Dead causes his work to be "divided" among other deities, such as Thanato, god of death, or the Queres (Ker) - the latter portrayed in the Iliad, greedily gathering the souls of the warriors, while Tânato appears in the myths of the kind Alceste or the cunning Sisyphus. As the relentless and invincible lord of death, Hades is the god most hated by mortals, as recorded by Homer (Iliad 9.158.159). 

     Plato stresses that the fear of speaking his name made them use euphemisms, like Pluto (Cratylus 403a). The myth has little modern influence. However, it was the objective of analyzes by psychology and cinematographic adaptations; among the latter, Disney recreated it in two distinct moments, one in 1934 on an experimental basis.

Hades and Persephone:

     The union was narrated by Thomas Bulfinch as a result of the struggle between the gods and the giants Typhon, Briareu, Enceladus and others: after being imprisoned in Etna, the cataclysms caused by their freedom struggles made Hades afraid that his world would be exposed to the sun. So, in order to verify what was going on, Hades finally decides to leave his kingdom, mounted in his car of black corcilios. Aphrodite was, at that moment, sitting on Mount Érix with her son Eros (then personified as Cupid) and challenged him to launch his arrows at the lonely god when, over there, Demeter's daughter was passing through the valley of Ena (a Sicilian prairie) ), also single. Arrowed by Love, Hades kidnaps the beautiful niece who, terrified, cries out for help to her mother and her friends but, without being able to react, ends up resigning herself. Hades excites the horses to flee as quickly as possible until they reach the river Cyan, which refused to allow it. The god then wounded the bank, opening the land and creating an entrance to Tartarus.

Their children are: Maaária, Melinoe and Zagreu

     Other variants of the myth place Hades' niece and beloved on the banks of the Cefiso River, in Eleusis, or at the foot of Monte Cilene, in Arcádia, where a cave led to the Hells; in others, near Knossos, Crete. It is also said that Zeus, to help his brother in the capture of Persephone, while she was picking flowers, posted a narcissus (or a lily) on the edge of an abyss and she, when picking the flower, fell, because the Earth opened, Hades appears to capture her. Demeter sets out on a useless search for her daughter, going from Eos (the Aurora) to the Hesperides (in the west). 

     In his pilgrimage he saves a boy, who is charged with teaching men how to farm. Desperate, she stops by the same river Cíano where her daughter was taken. The nymph who lived there is hidden, fearing reprisals from the god of the Hells, but she lets the garland that Persephone had dropped when taken be carried over the waters. Upon seeing her, the goddess revolts, blaming the land for her suffering: the curse she casts causes the infertility of the soil and the death of cattle. Seeing the desolation caused by the goddess's revenge, the source Aretusa decided to intercede. Looking for Demeter, she tells her story - of how she was pursued by Alphaeus, along the river of the same name and, helped by Artemis, who had opened an underground path for her escape to Sicily, she then saw Persephone being taken by Hades - still sad , but already bearing the countenance of Queen of the Underworld.

Check: All for Greek Underworld

     A variant tells the story as follows: after ten days Demeter was helped by Hecate, goddess of the new moon, who took her to Helio the Sun; the latter would have told him what had happened, adding that the abduction had been consented by Zeus. He had said more: to accept what had happened, for Hades "was not a worthless son-in-law." But the mother, in her desperation, refuses the advice and, hurt by Zeus, leaves Olympus and then wanders the land like an old woman. The goddess immediately goes to Olympus, where Zeus pleads for the restored daughter. 

     The Lord of the Gods consents, however imposing the condition that Persephone had not, in the underworld, ingested any food - a condition that would cause the Fates to forbid him from leaving. Hermes, guide of souls, is sent as a messenger next to Primavera. Hades agrees with the request but, in a ruse, offers Persephone a pomegranate, from which the young girl sucks some grains, thus sealing her destiny, as she could never be freed from the Hells. (Pierre Grimal, however, adds that Zeus had forced Hades to return Demeter's daughter, but that due to the possible deception of the Chthonian god, she had been prevented from doing so by ingesting a single pomegranate seed.
     Also in relation to the time he would spend with his mother, the author informs that the sources differ: now it would be half a year, now a third.) Despite having his wife forever trapped in the Underworld, the shadow god makes a deal with his mother-in-law , agreeing that Persephone would spend part of the time with her and part with her mother. Demeter agrees with the adjustment, and restores his fertility to the land. The monarchs Hades and Persephone not only ruled the souls of the dead, but they had the role of judges of humanity after life. 

     In this they were aided by three heroes who were, in life, recognized for their sense of justice and wisdom: Minos, his brother Radamanto and Éaco who, in a later version, was responsible for the doors of the underworld. Philip Wilkinson and Neil Philip say it is the time that Persephone spends on earth with his mother, making plants germinate and grow, the equivalent of spring and summer; on the other hand, when he returns to Hades, there is winter - when the Earth is forced to suffer a temporary death.

Check: The Three Judges

Hades and Serapis:

     Menard tells a story in which the infernal Zeus is considered the same Egyptian god Serapis, whose origin and attributes remain obscure. Ptolemy II Filadelfo governed the city of Alexandria, which he tried to embellish when, in a dream, Serapis ordered him to search the Point for a statue dedicated to him. There was such a monument in Sinope, dedicated to the hellish Zeus. 

     The king of Sinope agreed to the request, but the local people rose up, surrounding the temple in order to prevent the image from being removed: the statue then rose and walked to the ship that transported it to Egypt. Given his great similarity with Hades, the Julian Emperor, seeking to know the distinctions between Pluto and that god, obtained from the Oracle of Delphi the following answer: "Jupiter Serapis and Pluto are the same deity".

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