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"Hades is not to be soothed, neither
overcome, wherefore he is most hated by mortals of all gods."
[Agamemnon.
Homer, Iliad
9.158] |
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Hades was allotted the dominion of the Underworld
and rules over the dead. He is known under several other names:
Pluto 2, Aedoneus, Orcus and Dis. It is said that Hades was
worshipped only in Elis.
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Ruler of the Underworld
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Hades belongs to the first generation of OLYMPIANS,
being the brother of Zeus, Poseidon,
Hera, Hestia,
and Demeter.
After the war agains the TITANS,
the three brothers divided the world, and Hades was allotted the
dominion of the Underworld,
while Poseidon
ruled the sea and Zeus the
Heavens. |
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His helmet |
Hades possessed a helmet—which the CYCLOPES
gave him (as they gave the thunderbolt to Zeus and the trident to
Poseidon)—that rended the wearer invisible. He sometimes lent it to
both gods and men. So, for example, Perseus
1 put the helmet on his head when he went to kill Medusa
1, and Hermes,
wearing the helmet, fought the GIANTS.
Later, Athena at
Troy put
on the helmet of Hades, so that Ares should
not see her [see Diomedes
2]. |
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Abduction of Persephone
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Demeter's
daughter Persephone
was carried off by Hades, and because of her eating one (or several)
seed of a pomegranate in the Underworld,
she had to divide her time between this and the upper world.
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Consequences of the abduction |
When Hades abducted her, Demeter
went about seeking her daughter all over the earth with torches by
night and day, and during that time she did not allow the earth to
produce any fruits. When Zeus
ordered Hades to send back Persephone,
Hades then gave her a seed of a pomegranate to eat, in order that
she might not tarry long with her mother. Not foreseeing the
consequence, she swallowed it; and because Ascalaphus 2 bore witness
against her, Demeter
laid a heavy rock on him in Hades. But later Heracles
1 rolled away the stone of Ascalaphus 2, and then Demeter
turned Ascalaphus 2 into a short-eared owl. |
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Wounded by Heracles
1 |
It has been told that when Heracles
1 campaigned against Pylos,
Hades came to support the Pylians being wounded by Heracles
1 with an arrow in the shoulder. Hades then retired to Olympus
where Paeeon, who in Heaven knows the remedies for all things,
healed him.
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Hades and his three-headed
hound Cerberus
1 | |
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