what were hades, the god of the underworld's myths?

Answer 1

HADES (PLUTO)- Son of Cronos (Saturn), brother of Zeus and Poseidon. When the world was divided between the three brothers, the underworld and hell fell to Hades, while Zeus took the heavens and Poseidon the seas. He had a helmet that made him invisible. He ruled the dead, and forbade his subjects to leave his domain. He desired Persephone, but Zeus forbade the marriage. He then kidnapped her.

Answer 2

Hades, in Greek mythology, god of the dead. He was the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea and the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. When the three brothers divided up the universe after they had deposed their father, Cronus, Hades was awarded the underworld. There, with his queen, Persephone, whom he had abducted from the world above, he ruled the kingdom of the dead. He kidnaped her while she was picking flowers. He opened the grownd and snached he. Demeter was so sad she lost her daughter she negelected the land and made no crops. Zeus could not take it anymore, so he ordered Hades to give her back to her mother. But the night before he tricked Persephone it to eating a pomegranate seed. So she had to stay in the Underworld for part of the year, and the other time she spends with her mother. That is the reason that we have seasons. Demeter is happy when her daughter returns and gives us spring. Hades,although he was a grim and pitiless god, unappeased by either prayer or sacrifice, he was not evil. In fact, he was known also as Pluto, lord of riches, because both crops and precious metals were believed to come from his kingdom below ground.

Answer 3

There was a myth about the daughter of Demeter with whom Hades fell madly in love with. He kidnapped her and took her down to the underworld. There he offered her pomegranites and wine. She ate 3 pieces of a pomegranite and soon after got very lonely. She felt so heart-broken that Hades felt bad for her. Meanwhile Demeter was also heart-broken at the loss of her child and the earth gave forth no crops. After awhile Hades felt so bad that he decided to let Demeter's daughter go. The problem was she ate food of the underworld. She had to return to the underworld at least once a year. In the time she is with Hades, Demter lets the earth freeze which explains winter and when she's with her mother, Demeter lets the earth flourish...spring.

Answer 4

Well Hades refers to both the ruler and the region.The name applies to the underworld(hell)
The ruler who was Pluto.Son of Saturn and brother of Jupiter and Neptune.His wife was Proserpina.Hades is often represented as sitting with Cerberus at his feet.Cerberus was the three headed dog that guarded the gates of hades

Answer 5

Hades is a portion of hell that was created for the fallen angels, God had never intended for man to go to hell, It was created for the fallen angels and Lucifer. But when the human race sinned we could no longer enter into heaven and there had to be something that gave a blood sacrifice, so people offered up unblemished sheep or goats, pigeons, cows, etc. Once Christ died on the cross we no longer had to sacrifice animals. With the blood of Christ to take away our sins we can enter into heaven. All who choose to have Christ as their Savior can enter into heaven and unfortunately those that do not choose to have Christ as a Savior end up in Hades. This is no Myth, ask the people that have life after death experiences. Many unsaved people change their point of view after a life after death experience.

Answer 6

The river of which many know its name, without knowing its origin or what it really stood for. A river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. Styx it is said winds around Hades (hell or the underworld are other names) nine times. Its name comes from the Greek word stugein which means hate, Styx, the river of hate. This river was so respected by the gods of Greek mythology that they would take life binding oaths just by mentioning its name, as referenced in the story of Bacchus-Ariadne, where Jove "confirms it with the irrevocable oath, attesting the river Styx."

There are five rivers that separate Hades from the world of the living, they are:

1. Acheron - the river of woe;
2. Cocytus - the river of lamentation;
3. Phlegethon - the river of fire;
4. Lethe - the river of forgetfulness;
5. Styx - the river of hate.

It is thought that Charon, the old ferry man who ferries the dead onto the underworld, crosses the river Styx where the dragon tailed dog Cerberus guards, allowing all souls to enter but none to leave. This is a misconception, Charon crosses the river Acheron where also Cerebus stands his eternal guard. Also while on this subject, Charon only takes the souls across that are buried properly with a coin (called an obol) that was placed in their mouths upon burial.

If a god gave his oath upon the river Styx and failed to keep his word, Zeus forced that god to drink from the river itself. The water is said to be so foul that the god would lose his/her voice for nine years. The river is not the subject of any story itself but is mentioned in several. These little pieces give a wonderful view of not only the river but the ancient Greeks view of the underworld. From its Adamantine gates to its separate levels of Tartarus and Erebus onto the Elysian fields.
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The final labor that Eurystheus gave to Heracles, was what the weak and cowardly king thought was an impossible task; to capture and bring back alive Cerberus, the guard-dog to the entrance of the underworld. This monstrous dog is usually depicted with two, sometimes three or in some versions fifty heads, and its tail and mane were snakes. Cerberus was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, his master was the god of the underworld, Hades.

Heracles, to prepare himself for this perilous task made his way to Eleusis, to be an initiate in the Eleusinian Mysteries. This he hoped would cleanse him from the deaths of the centaurs, of which he was responsible, also he might learn how to return from the kingdom of the dead.

From Eleusis Heracles traveled to Taenarum in the Peloponnese, and there found the entrance to the underworld. Heracles asked Athena and Hermes to help him, which they did, Hermes led the uncertain hero down into the dim light of the underworld. Close by the gates of Hades there were two living men chained to the rock, as the hero drew closer he recognized them, Pirithous, king of the Lapiths, and Theseus, the king and hero of Athens. They were being punished by Hades for their attempt to take Persephone back to the face of the earth. Heracles set Theseus free, tearing the chains from the rock, but as he attempted to free Pirithous, the rocks shook as if an earthquake had begun, but it was the wrath of Hades, Heracles moved away leaving Pirithous to his fate. Then the hero came face to face with the Lord of the Underworld. Heracles asked Hades if he could take Cerberus back with him to the land of the living. Hades gave his permission, as long as no weapon was used against the huge creature. (in some versions Heracles shot an arrow into the shoulder of Hades).

To capture the monstrous dog, Heracles gripped Cerberus by the throat and wrestled him with his bare hands, overpowering the ferocious beast, then swinging it across his shoulders carried his prize up to the land of the living and back to the court of the king. As Heracles cast the monster at the feet of Eurystheus. The terrified king trembling with fear, asked Heracles to take the monstrous beast back to the underworld, and if he did he would free the hero of his labors.

Answer 7

I have given you info about HADES as well as the others hope it is useful to you sir/madame:
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Hades, probably from Indo-European refers to both the ancient Greek underworld and the god of the dead. The word originally (as in Homer) referred to just the god; Haidou its genitive, was short for "the house of Hades". Eventually, the nominative, too, came to designate the abode of the dead.

Hades was also known as Pluto (from Greek Ploutōn), and was known by this name, as "the unseen one", or "the rich one",[citation needed] as well as Dis Pater and Orcus, in Roman mythology; the corresponding Etruscan god was Aita.

The term hades has sometimes been used in Christianity to mean the abode of the dead, where the dead would await Judgment Day either at peace or in torment. See Hades in Christianity.

Hades, abode of the dead

In older Greek myths, Hades is the gloomy abode of the dead, where almost all mortals go. There is no reward or special punishment in this Hades, akin to the Hebrew sheol. In later Greek philosophy appeared the idea that all mortals are judged after death and rewarded or damned.

There were several sections of Hades, including the Elysian Fields (contrast the Christian Paradise or Heaven), and Tartarus, (compare the Christian Hell). Greek mythographers were not perfectly consistent about the geography of the afterlife.

A contrasting myth of the afterlife concerns the Garden of the Hesperides, often identified with the Isles of the Blessed.

In Roman mythology, an entrance to the underworld located at Avernus, a crater near Cumae, was the route Aeneas used to descend to the Underworld. By synecdoche, "Avernus" could be substituted for the underworld as a whole. The Inferi Dii were the Roman gods of the underworld.

The deceased entered the underworld by crossing the Acheron ferried across by Charon (kair'-on), who charged an obolus, a small coin for passage, placed under the tongue of the deceased by pious relatives. Paupers and the friendless gathered forever on the near shore. Greeks offered propitiatory libations to prevent the deceased from returning to the upper world to "haunt" those that had not given them a proper burial. The far side of the river was guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed dog defeated by Heracles (Roman Hercules). Beyond Cerberus, the shades of the departed entered the land of the dead to be judged.

The five rivers of Hades are Acheron (the river of sorrow), Cocytus (lamentation), Phlegethon (fire), Lethe (forgetfulness) and Styx (hate). See also Eridanos. The Styx forms the boundary between upper and lower worlds.

The first region of Hades comprises the Fields of Asphodel, described in Odyssey xi, where the shades of heroes wander despondently among lesser spirits, who twitter around them like bats. Only libations of blood offered to them in the world of the living can reawaken in them for a time the sensations of humanity (compare vampires).

Beyond lay Erebus, which could be taken for a euphonym of Hades, whose own name was dread. There were two pools, that of Lethe, where the common souls flocked to erase all memory, and the pool of Mnemosyne ("memory"), where the initiates of the Mysteries drank instead. In the forecourt of the palace of Hades and Persephone sit the three judges of the Underworld: Minos, Rhadamanthys and Aeacus. There at the trivium sacred to Hecate, where three roads meets, souls are judged, returned to the Fields of Asphodel if they are neither virtuous nor evil, sent by the road to Tartarus if they are impious or evil, or sent to Elysium (Islands of the Blest) with the heroic or blessed.

In the Sibylline Oracles, a curious hodgepodge of Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian elements, Hades again appears as the abode of the dead, and by way of folk etymology, it even derives Hades from the name Adam (the first man), saying it is because he was the first to enter there (Sib. Or. Bk. I, 101-3).


Hades in Christianity

Like other 1st-century Jews literate in Greek, early Christians used the Greek word "hades" as the translation for the Hebrew word "sheol." This use appears in Luke's story of Lazarus and the rich man. Both underworlds had originally been dark and gloomy with no relation to afterlife rewards or punishments. Since the writing of the Hebrew Bible, however, the popular concept of sheol had come to include particular judgment. Thus hades was seen as a place of comfort for the righteous (in the bosom of Abraham) and torment for the wicked. Here the dead awaited the universal resurrection on Judgment Day. Early church fathers defended this view of the afterlife against the view that the soul went immediately to heaven or to hell after the death of the body.

The doctrine of hades exists in substantially its original Christian form in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It also exists in its Old Testament form, as the abode of the unconscious dead, in certain other denominations, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses. In mainstream Western Christianity, however, it has largely been replaced by the concept of the soul going straight to hell, heaven, or (in Roman Catholicism) purgatory.


Hades, the lord of the Underworld

Residents:
Persephone
Hades
Minos
Aeacus
Rhadamanthus
Charon
Cerberus

Geography:
Acheron
Cocytus
Tartarus
Lethe
Elysion
Styx
Phlegethon
Asphodel Meadows
Erebus

Famous inmates:
Ixion
Sisyphus
Tantalus
The Titans

In Greek mythology, Hades (the "unseen"), the god of the underworld, was a son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. He had three older sisters, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, as well as two younger brothers, Poseidon and Zeus: together they accounted for half of the Olympian gods.

Upon reaching adulthood Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings. After their release the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged their parents and uncles for power in the Titanomachy, a divine war. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades received weapons from the three Cyclops to help in the war. Zeus the thunderbolt; Hades the helmet of invisibility; and Poseidon the trident. During the night before the first battle Hades put on his helmet and, being invisible, slipped over to the Titans' camp and destroyed their weapons. The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods. Following their victory, according to a single famous passage in the Iliad (xv.187-93), Hades and his two younger brothers, Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots for realms to rule. Zeus got the sky, Poseidon got the seas, and Hades received the underworld, the unseen realm to which the dead go upon leaving the world as well as any and all things beneath the earth.

Hades obtained his eventual consort and queen, Persephone, through trickery, a story that connected the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries with the Olympian pantheon.

Despite modern connotations of death as "evil", Hades was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology. Hades was often portrayed as passive rather than evil; his role was often maintaining relative balance.

Hades ruled the dead, assisted by others over whom he had complete authority. He strictly forbade his subjects to leave his domain and would become quite enraged when anyone tried to leave, or if someone tried to steal the souls from his realm.

Besides Heracles, the only other living people who ventured to the Underworld were all heroes: Odysseus, Aeneas (accompanied by the Sibyl), Orpheus, Theseus, and Psyche. None of them was especially pleased with what they witnessed in the realm of the dead. In particular, the Greek war hero Achilles, whom Odysseus met in Hades (although some believe that Achilles dwells in the Isles of the Blest), said:

"Do not speak soothingly to me of death, glorious Odysseus. I should choose to serve as the hireling of another, rather than to be lord over the dead that have perished."
—Achilles' soul to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 11.488

Hades, labelled as "Plouton", "The Rich One", bears a cornucopia on an Attic red-figure amphora, ca 470 BC.Hades, god of the dead, was a fearsome figure to those still living; in no hurry to meet him, they were reticent to swear oaths in his name. To many, simply to say the word "Hades" was frightening. So, a euphemism was pressed into use. Since precious minerals come from under the earth (i.e., the "underworld" ruled by Hades), he was considered to have control of these as well, and was referred to as Πλούτων (Plouton, related to the word for "wealth"), hence the Roman name Pluto. Sophocles explained referring to Hades as "the rich one" with these words: "the gloomy Hades enriches himself with our sighs and our tears." In addition, he was called Clymenus ("notorious"), Eubuleus ("well-guessing"), and Polydegmon ("who receives many"), all of them euphemisms for a name it was unsafe to pronounce, which evolved into epithets.

Although he was an Olympian, he spent most of the time in his dark realm. Formidable in battle, he proved his ferocity in the famous Titanomachy, the battle of the Olympians versus the Titans, which established the rule of Zeus.

Because of his dark and morbid personality he was not especially liked by either the gods nor the mortals. Feared and loathed, Hades embodied the inexorable finality of death: "Why do we loathe Hades more than any god, if not because he is so adamantine and unyielding?" The rhetorical question is Agamemnon's (Iliad ix). He was not, however, an evil god, for although he was stern, cruel, and unpitying, he was still just. Hades ruled the Underworld and therefore most often associated with death and was feared by men, but he was not Death itself — the actual embodiment of Death was Thanatos.

When the Greeks propitiated Hades, they banged their hands on the ground to be sure he would hear them. Black animals, such as sheep, were sacrificed to him, and it is believed that at one time even human sacrifices were offered. The blood from sacrifices to Hades dripped into a pit so it could reach him. The person who offered the sacrifice had to turn away his face. Every hundred years festivals were held in his honor, called the Secular Games.

Hades' weapon was a two-pronged fork, which he used to shatter anything that was in his way or not to his liking, much as Poseidon did with his trident. This ensign of his power was a staff with which he drove the shades of the dead into the lower world.

His identifying possessions included a famed helmet of darkness, given to him by the Cyclopes, which made anyone who wore it invisible. Hades was known to sometimes loan his helmet of invisibility to both gods and men (such as Perseus). His dark chariot, drawn by four coal-black horses, always made for a fearsome and impressive sight. His other ordinary attributes were the Narcissus and Cypress plants, the Key of Hades and Cerberus, the three-headed dog. He sat on an ebony throne.

In the Greek version of an obscure Judaeo-Christian work known as 3 Baruch (never considered canonical by any known group), Hades is said to be a dark, serpent-like monster or dragon who drinks a cubit of water from the sea every day, and is 200 plethra (20,200 English feet, or nearly four miles) in length.


Artistic representations
Hades is rarely represented in classical arts, save in depictions of the Rape of Persephone. Hades is also mentioned in The Odyssey, when Odysseus visits the underworld as part of his journey. However, in this instance it is Hades the place, not the god.


Persephone
The consort of Hades, and the archaic queen of the Underworld in her own right, before the Hellene Olympians were established, was Persephone, represented by the Greeks as daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Persephone did not submit to Hades willingly, but was abducted by him while picking flowers with her friends. Persephone's mother missed her and without her daughter by her side she cast a curse on the land and there was a great famine. Hades tricked Persephone into eating four pomegranate seeds, which meant that she would be unable to leave the underworld even with the help of Zeus. Persephone knew of her mother's depression and asked Hades to return her to the land of the living, on the condition that she would stay with him for 4 months; one month for each pomegranate seed she ate. Every year Hades fights his way back to the land of the living with Persephone in his chariot. Famine (autumn and winter) occurs during the months that Persephone is gone and Demeter grieves in her absence. It is believed that the last half of the word Persephone comes from a word meaning 'to show' and evokes an idea of light. Whether the first half derives from a word meaning 'to destroy' - in which case Persephone would be 'she who destroys the light'.


Theseus and Pirithous
Hades imprisoned Theseus and Pirithous, who had pledged to marry daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen and together they kidnapped her and decided to hold onto her until she was old enough to marry. Pirithous chose Persephone. They left Helen with Theseus' mother, Aethra and traveled to the underworld. Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast; as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Theseus was eventually rescued by Heracles.


Heracles
Heracles' final labour was to capture Cerberus. First, Heracles went to Eleusis to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. He did this to absolve himself of guilt for killing the centaurs and to learn how to enter and exit the underworld alive. He found the entrance to the underworld at Tanaerum. Athena and Hermes helped him through and back from Hades. Heracles asked Hades for permission to take Cerberus. Hades agreed as long as Heracles didn't harm him, though in some versions, Heracles shot Hades with an arrow. When Heracles dragged the dog out of Hades, he passed through the cavern Acherusia.


Orpheus and Eurydice
Hades showed mercy only once: Because the music of Orpheus was so hauntingly good, he allowed Orpheus to bring his wife, Eurydice, back to the land of the living as long as she walked behind him and he never tried to look at her face until they got to the surface. Orpheus agreed but, yielding to the temptation to glance backwards, failed and lost Eurydice again, to be reunited with her only after his death.


Minthe and Leuce
According to Ovid, Hades pursued and would have won the nymph Minthe, associated with the river Cocytus, had not Persephone turned Minthe into the plant called mint. Similarly the nymph Leuce, who was also ravished by him, was metamorphosed by Hades into a white poplar tree after her death. Another version is that she was metamorphosed by Persephone into a white poplar tree while standing by the pool of Memory.