Mythology Book

48

MIGHTY HADES WHO

DWELLS IN HOUSES

BENEATH THE EARTH

HADES AND THE UNDERWORLD

W

hile Zeus ruled over the

skies and Poseidon over

the seas, their brother

Hades guarded his subject-souls in

the Underworld—the kingdom that

bore his name, where mortal

humans went when they died.

Five dark rivers marked the

boundaries of Hades’s kingdom.

Acheron was the river of sadness,

Cocytus that of mourning. Lethe

was the river of forgetfulness, and

Phlegethon an impassable river of

fire. The River Styx marked the

main border between Earth and the

Underworld. The dead queued on

one side of the river and paid the

ferryman, Charon, with a coin to

grant them passage into Hades.

Because of this belief, the ancient

Greeks were sometimes buried

with a coin in their mouth, known

as “Charon’s obol.”

On the other side of the river

lay a dark and dismal realm. There,

the new arrivals had to go through

a large gate, guarded by the three-

headed, snake-tailed monster,

Hades and his abducted bride,

Persephone, watch over the tortured

souls of the dead in François de

Nomé’s 17th-century depiction of

the Underworld.

IN BRIEF

THEME

The Underworld

SOURCES

Iliad and Odyssey, Homer,

8th century bce; Theogony,

Hesiod ca. 700 bce.

SETTING

The Underworld.

KEY FIGURES

Hades Brother of Zeus; god

of the Underworld.

Charon Ferryman of the

River Styx.

Cerberus Three-headed

guardian of the Underworld;

son of the serpentine Typhon

and Echidna.

Tantalus A Phrygian king

held captive by Hades.

Sisyphus King of Corinth,

who tricked Hades into letting

him go free.

Hecate Goddess of witchcraft

and necromancy.

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49

See also: The war of the gods and the Titans 26–27 ■ The abduction of

Persephone 50–51 ■ The quest of Odysseus 64–69 ■ The Sibyl of Cumae 108–09

ANCIENT GREECE

Cerberus. Though loosely described

as a dog, this creature was born of

the union between the giant snake-

man, Typhon, and the man-eating

serpent-maiden, Echidna. Cerberus

turned this same ferocity on those

who attempted to escape.

Charon and Cerberus were not

the only nonhuman residents of

Hades. Nyx, the goddess of night,

lived there, as did Eurynomos,

a flesh-eating demon, and the

goddess Hecate. The Furies served

Hades as his torturers, while

Tartarus was both a deity and the

pit where Titans were punished.

Hellish punishments

Some souls faced hideous torments

in Hades. The crimes of Tantalus,

a Phrygian ruler, were twofold: to

test the gods, he had cooked and

served up his son at a banquet he

was hosting for them; and, as a

guest at Zeus’s table, he had tried

to steal nectar and ambrosia, which

would make him immortal, to take

back with him to Earth. For this, he

was imprisoned in Hades, wracked

with thirst and hunger, surrounded

by a pool of water, and with fruit-

laden branches that dangled inches

from his face. When he leaned over

to taste either the water or the fruit,

they withdrew from his reach,

driving him into a frenzy.

Sisyphus, King of Corinth, had

tricked Hades into thinking that

he had been taken to the

Underworld prematurely, and

managed to get himself returned

to Earth. As punishment, he was

sentenced to push an enormous

boulder up a hill. Each time he got

to the top, the stone rolled back

down to the bottom and he had

to start all over again—and again,

and again, for the rest of all time.

The Greek afterlife

Hades was not the only realm for

the dead. According to the ancient

writers, fallen heroes and the most

virtuous were sent to the Elysian

Fields—paradisiacal islands where

they could live in bliss. Neither

Hades nor Elysium, however, were

representative of the ancient Greek

view of the afterlife. Stories about

Elysium, or the punishment of

Sisyphus, were isolated tales. There

is no sense that the ancient Greeks,

as a whole, believed in a systematic

judgment of the dead. ■

Hecate

Despite Zeus’s victory over

Kronos and his Titans, and

his otherwise unchallenged

authority over the universe,

Hesiod’s Theogony tells us

that the goddess Hecate,

associated with darkness,

was honored “above all

others.” Darkness and death

were seen as powerful,

immutable elements.

Hecate was conventionally

depicted with three heads,

representing the full moon,

the crescent moon, and

the empty dead-black sky. She

was often identified with

crossroads, especially those

where three different paths

met. Associated with liminal

spaces and transitions, she

was often worshipped by

those wishing loved ones a

safe crossing into the realm of

the dead. Hecate was invited

to stay in the Underworld as a

companion to Hades’s wife,

Persephone, but was allowed

to come and go as she wished.

In myth, Persephone is often

seen as the maiden and

Demeter the mother; Hecate is

the crone to complete the trio.

Once Death has caught

hold of a man, he never

lets him go.

Theogony

Round the pit from every

side the crowd thronged,

with strange cries,

and I turned

pale with fear.

Odyssey

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