Hades: God of the Underworld

     Hades is known for being the God of the Underworld. His father was Cronus and his mother was Rhea. An oracle told Cronus that eventually one of his offspring would defeat him and steal his throne. Therefore, Cronus swallowed all his offspring. When the last offspring was born (Zeus), Rhea had yearned to have a child of her own. Rhea wrapped a rock in a baby blanket and Cronus swallowed it, thinking in the blanket was a baby. Rhea kept Zeus on the isle of Crete. When Zeus grew up he gave Cronus a potion which forced him to throw up all his elder siblings. Hades had finally been freed from the stomach of his father. After Hades' brothers and sisters together defeated the TItans; Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon drew lots to divide control of the universe. Zeus gained control of the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld. From then on Hades had controlled the underworld. Hades is also known as the Dark Lord, but people were afraid that he would hear them so they called him God Pluto. Hades did not pay attention to living mortals, he only payed attention to the dead entering his domain. To many people the land of Hades was called Tartarus. People said that Tartarus lies between a group of black poplar trees that lined the river Oceanus. It was here that the newley departed were met by Charon the Ferryman. Charon would carry the spirits across the River Styx in his ship filled with the dead. The land of the dead was guarded by Hades' three headed dog Cerberus (picture to the left).

     Hades main symbol is his Scepter of Plenty. There are many stories of Hades, one of the most popular is the story of how he captures Persephone and brings her to the underworld. In this story he captures Persephone, daughter of Demeter to be his wife. He drags her down to the underworld and forces her to be his wife. In order to find her daughter, Demeter stopped all food from growing until Persephone was returned to her. However, Persephone had eaten the seeds of the pomegranete of the underworld, therefore for a little part of every year she had to stay with Hades in the underworld.*^[1]