Hades Greek God of the Underworld

Hades Greek God of the Underworld-

Hades Greek God of the Underworld

Good afternoon my dear friends and followers and welcome to the third brother of the 3-brother of Olympians of the Greece. There were three brothers, Hades was the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. I believe he was the oldest, yet he got the worst of the parts of the realms to be overseer/ the god of it. Like that of the youngest son of Kronos Zeus God of thunder and lighting and the King of the Olympians and the middle brother Poseidon God of the Seas. Hades seemed when he drew lots with his brother to share the universe, he drew poorly or it was just bad luck. Zeus was granted the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades dominion over the underworld. Though Olympus and earth were considered neutral territory belonging to all,

Hades preferred to spend most of his time residing in his own dark domain. Which resulted in becoming lord/god of the underworld & ruler of the dead. Nevertheless, he was not considered to be death itself, as this was a different god, called Thanatos. Greedy like his brother God Poseidon, Hades was mainly interested in increasing his subjects & anyone whose deeds resulted in people dying that would favor's him afterwards. The Erinnyes-The Furies were welcomed guests always in his kingdom. There have been many 

Hades God of the Underworld

tales about the God Hades, one of them was that the Greeks were never keen on  uttering his name for fear of causing some kind of reaction that would end up with them dying an early death. Instead, they gave him a different name 'Pluto', which was derived from the greek word for wealth, due to the precious metals mined from the earth. Not really knowing what the people knowing did by giving Hades the other name of 'Pluton' thus he also became the God of wealth. Kinda odd in my opinion. In the ancient tale of the Greeks, the God Hades of the underworld it seems that he has always remained a bit of an enigma. These reasons could be because he was referred to as the 'Aidoneus one' which means 'Unseen One' from the Romans. They would often call him Dis. It was also common for the greek mortals of greece to never utter his name out loud. The reason for this was they were afraid of attracting the Dark Lord. It was much safer to speak of Hades as the God Pluto, who's name was a form of the word wealth. This was because along with the title of lord of the Dead, the God also acquired all of his riches buried beneath the earth by way of slaves. Although Hades had many treasures, it was said that his main prize possession was a mysterious helmet of invisibility that was given to him by the Cyclopes during the great war of the Greek Gods and the Titans. However, there were a few instances when a beautiful

Minthe the nymph that almost stole
Hades cold heart

female catch the usually grim spirited of the God Hades eye. One such woman was a nymph known as Minthe. Hades had become stricken with lust for the beautiful nymph Minthe, so the sprang on his golden chariot out to earth to pursue her. The maiden Minthe nymph was dazzled by the sight of Hades' chariot of gold and four powerful steeds that were guiding it. The Underworld God was having no problems attracting attention to himself & would have succeeded in seducing the impressionable young girl had it not been for the Persephone who had showed up to intervene. This part is the part I didn't know about till I started writing about Hades history-  So Persephone shown up in the nick of time to prove that even if she wasn't especially fond of husband, he was hers and by changing Minthe into a Mint plant, no one but Persephone would sleep with Hades and endure his torment. She felt the at this point as Queen of the underworld she was obliged to save Minthe by changing her into a mint plant. As I research more into the history of the beautiful Nymph Minthe there seem to be many different versions to the tale of Hades/Persephone and the lovely Minthe.

One is that Persephone isn't too kind to finding out about her husband mistress the nymph and takes revenge on Minthe. She becomes, unfortunately, the object of the Queen of the underworld wrath. The Goddess and Queen of the Underworld began to beat on the poor Naiad Minthe with furious kicks However since Persephone is the goddess of spring too with each kick from her foot the

Minthe Nymph 

nymph was transformed into the mint plant which is a delightful scent. There are other tales of the Minthe Nymph, but there are many other parts of Hades life story I would like to tell you all about. For a bit of history on how Persephone and Hades became the King and Queen of the Underworld... It started with Persephone being the daughter of Zeus and his older sister Demeter. Persephone was abducted by Hades when she bloomed into a beautiful young woman and decided he had to have her for his Queen and took and kidnapped her one day as she was picking flowers from the earth down to his world the underworld. Well, this, of course, infuriated her mother Demeter  who was in charge of the humans crops of food, spring and food. She made all of this. So the earth became wither and barren. Until Zeus intervened and tried to bring Persephone back to the world of the living. However, Persephone had ate the seeds of a pomegranate that Hades had given her. This binds her to him forever. Well, only Zeus could change this contract/ and it was so that Persephone would spend four months in the underworld and eight months eon earth with her mother Demeter. The period in the underworld corresponded to the winter season on earth which Demeter world make the soils barren due to the grief she had until

Queen Persephone of the Underworld

 the return of he daughter and spring. The Greek Goddess Persephone represents both the youthful, innocent and a joyous maiden. Also the aspects of a womanly self, who has lost her innocence, family attachment but can begin to decide for herself her own decisions on what she feels is best for her own womanly self as being a goddess, Queen, Wife, daughter, ruler of a kingdom and finding her own womanhood. Also finding her own power as the Queen and ruler of the Underworld. If you are more interested in this part of Persephone & Hades you can go to my blog link  which is a post I did a while  on the Goddess. wendyjargonncom.blogspot.com/search/label/Persephone

Land of the Dead

Charon Bringing the Dead
across the River Styx

Traditional the true location of the realm of Hades kingdom was

thought to be in many regions across Greece, claiming 

to have the entryway the main entrance to Tartarus where it is said to lie

between a group of black poplar trees found running beside the 

River Oceanus. It was here where the newly dead would departed and

Hades Home of the Underworld

would be met by the Charon on the boat[ferryman] to the underworld. For the price of an obol, He would carry the spirits across the River Styx in his ship of the dead. The unlucky ghosts who were laid to rest without a penny

were left to remain stranded forever on the river bank. Their only recourse was to sneak away from their guide Hermes & make their way down a back entrance.

Hades Three-Headed dog
Cerberus

The land of the dead is protected by Hades three-headed dog Cerberus. The duties of his Cerberus was to bar all trespassers from the land of the living while allowing the shades to pass by freely. Cerberus also kept watch over the gates of the Underworld, making sure that once a soul entered it remained for eternity. Before being led to their permanent place of residence, the newly deceased are required to drink from the Pool of Lethe. Just one drop of this water of forgetfulness would leave the spirit void of all memories of his former life on earth. After drinking from the pool of Lethe, the souls are led before Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus, which are the three judges of the underworld. These three judges could be found in the sacred area where three roads meet. Here they will

Another view of Hades
kingdom of the Underworld

sit and methodically decided the fate of all the new arrivals. Each new spirit was then directed to travel down the path that best corresponded to the way he/she conducted his/her life on earth. It seems that just past this beautiful serene meadow with its somber Pool of Lethe was a huge white cypress tree that gave shade to half side of the lake. It was just beyond this meadow where the palace of Hades and the Queen Persephone could be found. Quite amazing because they are two very different realms yet so close together. I was said that Hades & the Queen Persephone could watch the newly departed as they drank from the pool of Forgetfulness sitting from their place.

Elysium Fields Heaven

After the newly departed had drank from the pool of forgetfulness, the virtuous souls were sent to reside in the Elysium Fields. The Elysium Fields were made up of beautiful orchards that were located near the Pool of Memory. Elysium is ruled by Cronus. It is a happy place filled with everlasting daylight, music, and fun games of ancient times. Those living there were given the chance to be reborn on earth any time they desired. The Shades who were virtuous enough to reach Elysium Fields of Heaven three times were sent to the Fortunate Islands.

Elysium Fields 

These were a domain filled with glorious beasts & the ghosts of celebrated heroes.  This realm of Tartarus was located deep beneath the surface of the earth. There were roots that grew just above this realm made both of land & sea, and it was said an anvil would have to fall nine days before ever being able reaching its shores. It was here, behind a prison of bronze fencing and iron gates that one world find the souls of those sentenced to eternal punishment. It was said deep within the blackness of Tartarus could be found the Titans, who were cast there after fighting ten-year war with the Olympian Gods. All residing here were under the guard of the Hundred-handed; three giants with fifty heads and one hundred arms who were the half brothers of Zeus. It seems that along with their brothers the Cyclopes the Hundred-handed found favor with Zeus by coming to his aid during the great 10-year war and were rewarded justly by being set free from this vast prison. 

Well I hope that you all found the God Hades

at least interesting. I had a few other stories about 

his life but the post was getting a bit long so I will write those

another time. I hope you might check out my post on Queen Persephone 

It has had lots of views over the years. I think I might do 

another one on her or an update. 

I love you all my dearest friends and followers 

Have a great evening hugsss

YOUR WENDY