Etymology and Epithets
(g.) Hades, "unseen", "invisible"
(l.) Pluto or Dis/Dives, "wealth" (referring to underground metals), "the enricher"
(l.) Orcus, "confining place"
Zeus Katachtonius (kata "under" + cthon "earth"), "underground Zeus"
Polyxenos, "host to many"
Polydegmon, "receiver of many"
Erebus, "Darkness"
Domain: Underworld.
Genealogy: Cronus + Rhea, Brother to Zeus
Claim to Fame: God of Death and the Underworld, Abductor of Persephone/Proserpina, General Hardass.
Iconography: Rooster? Anything death related...
Literature: Homer's
Odyssey, Book 11 (Nekuia/Book of the Dead/Spirit Summoning), Plato's
The Republic (Myth of Er, Book 10), Hesiod's
Isle of the Blessed, Vergil's
Aeneid (Book 6)
The Greek View of Death: When
psyche ("breath"/"soul"),
anima ("soul"/"spirit"), or
anemos ("wind") is separated from the
soma/
corpus ("body"). Literally, when one breathes his/her last. If it is the breath that contains the soul, it can live on in spirit once set free from the body.
Homer's Odyssey (Nekuia, Book 11)
Katabasis ("descent into the underworld") occurs at the farthest reaches of Oceanus, where the sun [literally] sets on living souls. A summoning of spirits requires a libation of milk, honey, wine, water, blood and an animal sacrifice to rehydrate the shades of the dead.
As stated by the shade of Achilles when visited by Odysseus, a common Greek view was that it was better to be a slave on earth than the King of the Dead; Aristophanes furthered the idea that the best thing one could wish for is to never have been born at all; and Milton stated in Paradise Lost that it is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
Plato's Republic (Myth of Er, Book 10)
One's morality among the living earns proportional punishment and/or reward in the afterlife. Once dead, one's soul serves a quantified sentence whereby they can negotiate the circles of hell based on deed.
Metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, implies that one has the opportunity to choose a new life after sentence is served out. Souls are reincarnated after drinking from the River Lethe ("forgetfulness")
Vergil's Aeneid (Book 6)
A mixture of Greco-roman myth, religion, and philosophy follows the founder of Rome on his katabasis to illustrate hell.
Aeneus, son of Aphrodite and Anchises, is ordered to escape the burning Troy and find the new civilization in the west known as Rome. To glimpse a prophecy of the future of his creation, which will outlive him, he descends into hell with the assistance of Cumaen Sybil. Equipped with the Golden Bough sacred to Proserpina, the two offer libations to gain entrance to the opening of the Underworld at the sulphuric Lake Avernus ("birdless") at Cumae. They then meets a series of mythological figures and places:
1. Personified Abstractions (ie. Grief, Cares, Old Age, Worry)
2. Monsters of the Deep (ie. Scylla, Gorgon, Harpies, Chimera)
3. River Acheron ("sorrowful"), which marks the boundary of Hades' realm
4. Charon, Ferryman of the Dead, who mans the only crossing (later traditions they cross the River Styx, "hate"). Golden bough serves as a golden ticket.
5. Cerberus, three-headed hell hound positioned at the far side of the river (no one gets out). Is drugged by meal and honey to allow passage.
6. Thanatos ("death") and Hypnos ("sleep"), winged psychopompous figures.
7. Fork in the road:
I. Tartarus (left fork): place of punishment for sinners.
- Surrounded by the flaming River Phlegethon
- Guarded by the Fury Tisiphone ("punisher")
- Jury of Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus.
II. Elesium (right fork) or the Elysian Fields: Reserved for the age of heroes, a paradise realm.
- Reserved for pure souls, or those that have paid their sentence.
- Purification ritual of 1000 years completes the circle of time before transmigration.
Sinners
Tityus: tried to rape Leto, mother of Artemis and Apollo. Eternal punishment of having his liver (seat of passion) devoured by vultures daily, only to have it regenerated the next morning.
Tantalus: fed his own son to feasting gods. Eternal punishment of insatiable hunger and thirst while being neck deep in water with sustenance just out of reach.
Sisyphus: cheats Thanatos by chaining him up when he is being claimed, orders wife not to perform burial rights. Eternal punishment of insurmountable task of pushing a boulder to the top of an incline, only to have it fall back again.
Ixion: lusted after Hera, raped Zeus's prototype Nephele Hera ("cloud Hera") but spills his seed on the ground (= birth of Centaurus, father of Centaurs). Eternal punishment of being bound to a rotating wheel of fire.
The Danaids (50 daughters of Danaus, King of Argos): married their cousins, 49 of them which murdered them on their wedding night (except Hypermnestra). Eternally punished of filling leaky water jars (symbolizing impotence, cannot hold seed).
