Αδης
The god of the dead. Hades was the son of Cronus and Rhea, and brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter (Table 38). Like Zeus and Poseidon, he was one of the three 'overlords' who shared the empire of the Universe between them after the defeat of the Titans. While Zeus gained Heaven, and Poseidon the Sea, Hades' portion was the world of the Nether Regions - Tartarus, or Hell.
Like his brothers, Hades had been swallowed at birth by Cronus, and later disgorged. He took part in the fight against the Titans and the Cyclops armed him with a helmet which conferred invisibility on the wearer. This helmet of Hades, like that of Siegfried in German mythology, was subsequently worn by other deities, such as Athena, and even by mortal heroes, such as Perseus.
Down in the Nether Regions, Hades reigned over the Dead. He was a pitiless master, who allowed none of his subjects to return to the Living. He was assisted by many demons and genii who worked under his orders (for example Charon the ferryman). Persephone, who was no less cruel, reigned at his side. Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, was his niece (Table 38). Hades fell in love with her, but her father Zeus would not agree to his marrying her, since Demeter was outraged by the thought of her young daughter being imprisoned for all eternity in the land of shadows. Hades therefore decided to abduct her, and carried her off from the plains of Sicily while she was playing with her companions and picking flowers. He was perhaps even helped in this abduction by Zeus, who became his clandestine accomplice. Be that as is may, Zeus later ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother; but Hades had taken precautions - he had given Persephone a pomegranate seed to eat. Now, whoever visited the kingdom of the Dead, and ate anything there, could no longer return and dwell among the Living. Persephone was thus obliged to spend a third of each year with Hades. Her marriage with him was apparently childless.
Hades appears infrequently in the legends. Apart from the story of the abduction, which belonged in Demeter's cycle, his name hardly features except in one other myth, in which he is linked with Heracles's legend. In the Iliad, it was related that when the hero went down into the Nether Regions, Hades wished to deny him access to his kingdom; he met Heracles at the Gates of Hell, but the hero wounded him with an arrow in the shoulder. Hades had to be rushed up onto Mount Olympus, where the healing god Paean applied a magic ointment which healed his wound immediately. Other versions have Heracles stunning the god with a huge boulder. In any event, Zeus' son Heracles was the victor.
Hades, whose name means 'the Invisible', was usually not named out loud, for fear that his anger might be aroused by hearing himself called by name. Euphemisms were used to describe him instead; he was most commonly called by his surname, Pluto, 'the Rich' - an allusion to the inexhaustible richness of the earth, both the cultivated earth and the mines that lay hidden beneath it. Pluto was often depicted holding a horn of plenty, as a symbol of this richness.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
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