Hades
-
Hades
Hades is actually the name off the god of Hell, a brother to Zeus in Greek mythology. His wife is Persefone. The Romans called him Pluto or Dis, but they also had another deity whos name, like Hades', became the name for the dead's home, that is Orcus. It is said that Hades was worshipped only by the Eleans.
He possessed a helmet, which was given to him by the Cyclopes. This helmet rended the wearer invisible and sometimes Hades lent it to both gods and men. Perseus put the helmet on his head when he went to kill Medusa and Hermes, wearing the helmet, fought the Giants. Athena at Troy put on the helmet of Hades, so that Ares should not see her.
-
Hades
Hades' kingdom, which entrance is guarded by the Hell-dog with three heads Kerberos or Cerberus, are crossed by five rivers, and named in the right order in a well-known hexameter: Styx, Acheron, Phlegeton, Cocytus and finally Lethe. Styx is the border-river which the dead cross in a leaking boat by the gloomy ferryman Charon, who wants and obol for the trip. Only those who's got a funeral worthy enough is allowed on board; the rest is left to wander around on the sea shore of Styx. Styx is black and terrifying; if someone swears by this river - the ancient gods is said to have done this now and then - the oath is forever binding. The river Acheron is also gloomy and sorrowful. Phlegeton who is also called Pyriphlegeton is a fire-river who burns of flaming sulphur. Cocytus or Kokytos is a stream of crying and complaint, but Lethe finally is the mercyfull river of forgetness that erase all memories of the lost life on earth.
On the other side of Styx there is a melancolic meadow, overgrown with white lilys of the genus Asphodelus; there the waving shadows in an eternal haze that no sun can disperse. A few selected among the dead escape this shadowlife and get transferred to Elysium's fields on the islands of the happy, but the enemies of the gods, criminals are thrown into Tartaros, the hell of the ancient.
Down in Tartaros the furies, the goddesses of revenge, have their home and the place is populated already at the time of Homeros, of a few pitiful figures who's won famousness with sayings. One of these are Sisyfos, who are occupied for all eternity to roll an enormous stone up-hill with sweat and work; just as he reaches the top the stone rolls down again and he has to start over again. Why Sisyfos were punished with this isn't clear. Unknown is also what harm Oknos did. This poor man, who Homeros doesn't know of but who is mentioned by many later authors, is working in Hades like a rope-maker, but a donkey is eating the rope as it is done.
Close to these two in the underground Tantalos is standing and is suffering of Tantali; suffering of a burning thirst he is standing in water to his chin, but the water is disappearing whenever he is trying to drink, and above his head he see juicy fruits on groaning branches that are raising up in the air every time he's reaching for them. How he's earned such a punishment there are different stories, but one of his crimes is connected to the story about Pelops and is qualified enough.
Tantalos were a king of Phrygia and when a few of the gods once visited him he wanted to know if they were really all-knowing. To do that he slayed his little son Pelops and placed the meat on the table of the gods. He were emmediately unmasked; only the fertility goddess Demeter, who were absent minded and careless to the outer world, eat a bite. Zeus recalled Pelops to life and put a piece of ivory instead of a piece of the shoulder that Demeter had eaten. This ivory had wonderful qualities; it could cure all diseases when it was touched.
In the neighborhood of Tantalos is Sisyfos' brother Salmoneus; in what way he is suffering is not told, but his crime is that he once tried to be just as good as Zeus with thunder and lightning riding back and forth with horse and carriage over a bridge of bronze, at the same time as he threw burning torches to the left and right.
Another evil-doer in Hades is the giant Tityos, who once tried to use force against the goddess Leito; he is not outstreched across nine plough-lands, not able to defend himself from the voulchers that eats from his liver. For a similar crime Ixion is punished, chained to an eternally spinning wheel. He had during his life thrown his father-in-law in a pit with glowing coal and he wouldn't have to pay the bride's gift has he had promised. The anger of the people because of this were so mean that Zeus pitied Ixion and took him up to the Olympus, but well there he tried to seduce Hera. He decided to meet Hera at a certain time but Zeus found out and the great god formed a cloud to look like Hera and sent that to Ixion who were fooled and out of that the centaurs were borned, the horse people. Zeus killed him after that and told Hermes to chain him at the wheel in the underground.
Of those who is punished in Hades there are finally the danaids, king Danaos' fifty daughters, who all, except one, killed their husbands during the wedding night.