4. Hades

Hades is the god of the Dead and the Riches. He is also the King of the Underworld. His symbols are Cerberus (a 3 headed guard dog) and the Cap of Invisibility. Hades was one of the main gods with Zeus and Poseidon who fought against the Titans and won.

Hades is also the name for the Underworld. All mortals go there when they die. Once in Hades, only a few were able to get out as the gates of the Underworld or Hades were guarded by Cerberus. To get into the Underworld you had to pay the ferry man to get across the River Styx. Mourners had to leave two coins on the dead man’s eyes when they died so that he could pay the ferry man called Charon to get to the other side.

There were 3 different places in the Underworld, Tartarus, Asphodel fields and Elysium fields.

• Tartarus was the worst place in the Underworld, like Hell.

Examples of the punishment suffered by people who went to Tartarus were Sisyphus. He was made roll a big boulder up and down a hill forever.

• Asphodel fields were between heaven and hell. It was where people who were neither good nor evil went when they died.

• Elysium fields was like heaven. This is where the really good people and all the heroes went when they died.

The Story of Persephone and the Seasons

Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her to the Underworld to be his wife . However Demeter (Persephone’s mother) and goddess of Harvest asked Zeus to make Hades let her return home. Hades agreed to release her and offered her some Pomegranate for her journey. A rule of the Underworld says that once you eat some food from the Underworld, you are doomed to stay there. Persephone ate six of the Pomegranate seeds. Zeus knowing this rule decided she had to stay with Hades as Queen of the Underworld for one month for every seed of the pomegranate that she ate. The 6 months which Persephone spends in the Underworld are the winter /autumn months.