(Hades)-Lord of the Dead
In the earliest Greek epics, heroes and dead spirits such as Hercules (Heracles), Theseus, Orpheus and Odysseus were told to travel to the underworld ruled by Hades or Aides, brother of Zeus and Poseidon. Over time, as the Greek culture developed, the idea of life after death developed, and new ideas about the rewards and punishments that awaited mortals there emerged.
After the six children of Cronus and Rhea overthrew their cruel father and won a decisive victory against the Titans, the three brothers shared the dominion of the realms, namely the universe, Zeus became the lord of the sky, Poseidon of the sea, and Hades became the lord of the Underworld, namely Tartaros, which Hades 's name was also used to name the realm of the dead. For this reason, he was nicknamed the King of Shadows. Although the etymology of Hades is unclear, it is claimed to mean 'unseen'. It was also known in Rome by the names Pluto (wealth-giving) and Dis, both associated with the gods of wealth. Some writers believe this is because it is a euphemism to avoid uttering the god's terrible name, while others believe that Hades is associated not only with death but also with the wealth of precious metals and gems that come from the depths of the earth.
In Greek art, unlike Poseidon's pitchfork, he was portrayed as an old bearded king with a two-pronged pitchfork, and was portrayed as a ruthless person who did not allow anyone who entered the underworld to return. Hades is sometimes depicted holding the key of the underworld in his hand, as in a painting by Carracci in western art. During the war with the Titans, the Cyclops wore an invisibility helmet on Hades' head, which was also worn by Athena, Hermes, Perseus and Heracles. Hesiod described the land of the dead in Theogonia with these words:
“There he rises the echoing mansion / of the mighty Hades and the terrible Persephone / A raging dog awaits his door / a relentless, master of deceptions / a dog that cringes at those who enter, with its tail, its ears / but as soon as it leaves the one who enters, it waits outside / lurks and shatters those who come to the door to leave.”
Where Was the World of the Dead?
The Greeks initially saw the underworld as a gloomy place devoid of light and air. Although the Greeks believed that the World of the Dead was underground, some legends provide information about the entrance gates of Hades. In some myths, it was thought that the underground world would be entered through the craters of the volcanoes, possibly due to the poisonous gases emitted from the volcanoes killing the birds. There is a tradition narrative that speaks of Hades abducting Persephone from a fissure in Enna on the island of Sicily. Aside from volcanoes, numerous caves were thought of as gateways to the underworld, the most important being a cave at Taenarum near Sparta in Greece and Cumae near Lake Avernus in Italy. A Sibyl who could foretell the future lived in the cave in Cumae, who advised Aeneas about his entry into the underworld in Virgil's Aeneid epic written in the 1st century BC.
Rivers
The underworld was in the minds of the Greeks a real physical place with geographical features such as rivers, fields, and caves. There were five rivers in the underworld. The most famous of these, Styx, could only be crossed with the help of the boatman Charon, so it was thought in ancient Greece that a coin would be left in the mouth of the deceased to provide the necessary payment for this journey. The river of forgetfulness, the Lethe River, had water that made you forget the past when drunk. The other 3 underground rivers were associated with Acheron 'grief', Phlegethon 'flame' and Cocytus 'lament'. Of these, Acheron is a river that almost never flows, its banks are covered with reeds and mud, and it was believed that it flowed into the underworld because it plunged into a deep gorge and poured into the sea as a black swamp. Famous for its cold waters, Kocytus was the place where Odysseus dug a hole to go underground. While all these rivers flowed around Tartarus, which was a depth of torment without it, the souls of people who lived a good life dwelt in the Fields of Elysia.
Death and Fate
Hades only presided over the dead, never deciding when they would die. This was done by three goddesses, also called Moirai, who determined how long a person's life would last. Of these, Klotho was spinning the thread of life, Lachesis was measuring, and Atropos was cutting the thread of life, bringing death. While Thanatos was the god of death, Keres was the goddess of death, who according to Hesiod was particularly associated with death associated with violent, painful deaths on the battlefield.
Going to the Other World
The motif of returning after a hero descends to the underworld, called katabasis in Greek, has been used in many legends. In the legends, the hero usually makes this journey to obtain information that is only found in the world of the dead, in one of them Odysseus went to the underworld to take the advice of the dead seer Tiresias, with the advice of the Sorcerer Circe
When you pass Okeanos with your ship / there is the Low Shore and you will see the grove of Persephone / tall tall poplars, barren willows / on the shore of the deep eddy Oceanus pull your ship ashore / then set off towards the marshes of Hades / there Akheron, Pyriphlegeton and Cokytos flow / The waters from Styks also pour in there.”
Orpheus's musical abilities, cultivated by muses, impress Hades and Persephone, allowing his beloved wife Eurydice to come back to life has been used for. Hades would accept Orpheus's request on one condition, and he would not look at his wife while he was going upstairs, but when the man could not stand it and looked behind his shoulder, his wife disappeared in the land of the dead. The most important Greek hero, Heracles (Hercules), traveled to the land of the dead to bring the three-headed Cerberus back to life in the last of his 12 missions. In the Roman poet Virgil's Aeneid epic, Aeneas descended into the underworld in search of his father, Anchises.
