Seth Oettinger

English

Ms. Streetman

2 May 2011

Hades: One of Many Names

Hades is one of the most underappreciated gods there is. He deserves so much more worship than he actually gets. “Although Hades was often tricky and wise, he was not really the evil figure some made him out to be in later works. Instead, Hades was often simply passive, and even in some instances helpful to others.”(Monk) Without Hades no one would be able to die, which at first may sound good, but what may seem sweet at first will eventually become bitter. Eternal life would mean that a person could live forever, but it also means that they would be able to live through the worst conditions as well, from having your whole body burned to a crisp to being decapitated; people would have to live forever with the worst pain imaginable. If it wasn’t for Hades the whole earth would be in turmoil. His family is large to say the least, he rules over his own domain called the underworld, and has many different interesting facts.

The name of his domain is the Underworld; this is where all of the dead spirits go after death. When they enter the underworld they become entities called Shades. There are a few different places in the Underworld; these include The Fields of Asphodel, Elysium Meadows, Tartarus, The Fortune Islands, and The Palace of Hades. The entrance to the underworld is guarded by the three headed dog Cerberus, who is stationed to keep the dead in and the living out. There are also The Three Judges who are Aeceus, Minos, and Rhadamanthys who tell a person what part of the underworld they will be staying in. Charon ferries the dead souls across the river Styx, and Hermes takes them to Charon.

There were five different rivers in the Underworld; these were Styx, Lethe, Acheron, Phlegethon, and Cocytus. The river Styx is the river of Boundaries, the river Acheron is the river of Woe, the river Lethe is the river of Oblivion, the river Phlegethon is the river of The Underworld, and the river Cocytus is the river of Cries or The river of Lamentations

If someone was a very bad person during life they went to Tartarus, which was pretty much hell. It will give a unique torture based on what you did to get there. A few examples of people who ended up here are Sisyphus, who must push a boulder up an endless hill. Tantalus tried to feed the gods human flesh and was banished into Tartarus where he is eternally stuck in a pit that has a fruit tree that is just out of his reach, so that he may be eternally hungry. Orpheus came down to plead with Hades about getting back his beloved Eurydice. He played a hauntingly beautiful music that persuaded Hades to let Eurydice free on one condition; Orpheus must walk in front of her on his way out of the underworld and not look back until he was completely out, but temptation proved too much and he was instantly sent back to the underworld along with Eurydice.