The oldest version is related by the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which probably dates from the first half of the sixth century bce. However, the most famous myth of Hades is his abduction of Persephone, which was localized at various spots in the Greek world. There is an obscure allusion in the Iliad (5.395 –397) that Hades was wounded by Heracles 'at Pylos among the dead.' This myth is probably part of Heracles' function as Master of Animals and suggests that the personification of Hades dates back to the Bronze Age. The passage is one more example of the increasingly recognized Oriental influence on early Greek literature, since it ultimately derives from the Akkadian epic Atrahasis. Homer ( Iliad 15.187 –193) mentions that Hades acquired the underworld through a lottery with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon. He has few myths, fewer cults, and is not even represented with certainty on archaic Greek vases. Most likely, Hades first denoted a place name and was personified only later. Appropriately, it is linked to the root *a-wid- (invisible, unseen): Hades' wolf's cap is worn by the goddess Athena in the Iliad and makes her invisible (5.844 –845). The spelling of the name sometimes varies (Aides, Hades, A ïdoneus), but the etymology seems now reasonably clear. This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.HADES is the Greek name for the underworld and its ruler. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Odyssey x, 527 Servius on Virgil's Georgics ii, 380.Description of Greece v, 20.1 Orphic Hymn 17, 4. Description of Greece vi, 25.3 Pseudo-Apollodorus. 19 He bears several surnames referring to his ultimately assembling all mortals in his kingdom, and bringing them to rest and peace such as Polydegmon, Polydectes, Clymenus, Παγκοίτης (Pankoitēs), etc. 18īeing the king of the lower world, Pluton is the giver of all the blessings that come from the earth: he is the possessor and giver of all the metals contained in the earth, and hence his name Pluton. 15 Like the other gods, he was not a faithful husband the Furies are called his daughters 16 the nymph Minthe, whom he loved, was metamorphosed by Persephone into the plant called mint, 17 and the nymph Leuce, with whom he was likewise in love, was changed by him after her death into a white poplar, and transferred to Elysium. 14 Besides these horses he was also believed to have herds of oxen in the lower world and in the island of Erytheia, which were attended to by Menoetius. When he carried off Persephone from the upper world, he rode in a golden chariot drawn by four black immortal horses. The ensign of his power was a staff, with which, like Hermes, he drove the shades into the lower world, 13 where he had his palace and shared his throne with his consort Persephone. When mortals invoked him, they struck the earth with their hands, 11 and the sacrifices which were offered to him and Persephone consisted of black male and female sheep, and the person who offered the sacrifice had to turn away his face. 9 He kept the gates of the lower world closed (whence he is called Πυλάρτης, Pylartes 10), that no shade might be able to escape or return to the region of light. His character is described as fierce and inexorable, whence of all the gods he was most hated by mortals. 7 Ancient story mentions both gods and men who were honored by Hades with the temporary use of this helmet. He possessed a helmet which rendered the wearer invisible, 6 and later traditions stated that this helmet was given him as a present by the Cyclopes after their delivery from Tartarus. 4 But when Hades was in his own kingdom, he was quite unaware of what was going on either on earth or in Olympus, 5 and it was only the oaths and curses of men that reached his ears, as they reached those of the Erinyes. 3 As, however, the earth and Olympus belonged to the three brothers in common, he might ascend Olympus, as he did at the time when he was wounded by Heracles. 2 Hence he is called the infernal Zeus ( Ζεὺς καταχθόνιος, Zeus katachthonios), or the king of the shades ( ἂναε ἐνέρων, anae enerōn). In the division of the world among the three brothers, Hades obtained 'the darkness of night,' the abode of the shades, over which he rules.

Greek god hades