| Hades
(Lat. Pluto; Dis; Orcus) |
= Aidoneus (Invisible); Pluto (Rich). Brother of Zeus (or Lower Zeus).
Somber; rich; hospitable. Seldom appears above the ground and dislikes sunlight. His epithets: Polyonymos Polydegmon = of many names; host of many. Abducted Persephone for marriage. |
| Persephone
(Lat. Proserpina) |
Maiden/wife: goddess of spring; queen of the dead. Fair and horrible at the same time. |
| Thanatos (= Death) | Winged daemon, snatches the life away. |
| Hypnos (= Sleep)
also, Morpheus and the numerous progeny of dreams. |
Brother of Thanatos. His symbol: poppey, an opiate. |
| Hermes Psychopompus
(the Guide of Souls) |
Leads the souls to (and from) the Underworld. |
| Charon | Ferryman of death. After funerals, takes the souls across the river Styx. Those who have had no proper rites are denied the passage and must endlessly roam between the worlds. |
| Erinyes (euphemistically -
Eumenides,Well-Disposed) |
Goddesses of curse and vengeance. Chase parricides and avenge atrocities by driving to insanity. |
| Roman: Manes
guided by the goddess Mania |
Ancestral spirits. If angry, drive the guilty descendant insane. |
| Ker (Destruction);
Lamia and Empousa |
Vampires, snatch children. |
| Hecate (Lat. surname
Trivia = of the Crossroads) |
Three-headed goddess of witchcraft in chariot of dragons.
Appears at night on the crossroads with the torch and dogs. |
| Moirae (Lat. Fates) | 3 sisters: Clotho pulls the life-thread; Lachesis weaves
the fortune; Atropos cuts the thread.
Even gods fear them. They are really in control of everything. |
| Judges of the dead:
Minos, Radamanthus, Aeacus |
Decide the post-mortem punishments or rewards. |
| Cerberus | 3-headed dog. Guards the gates of Hades. |
WATER OF DEATH:
| Styx (Abhorrent) | River and goddess: oath of gods; renders invulnerability. |
| Acheron (Contrition); Cocytus (laments);
Phlegeton (or Pyriphlegeton: pyre) |
Rivers in the Underworld. |
| Lethe (Oblivion) | Lake of amnesia. Drinking from it, souls forget their past life. |
THE REALM OF HADES:
| Hades | Both god and the place of the dead. - Gloomy realm of incorporeal existence. |
| Elysium
(Elysian fields) |
Pleasant abode of the blessed souls. |
| Tartarus | Fiery bottom of the universe, place of eternal punishments of great
transgressors
and confinement of rebellious Titans. |
| What do the dead people do? | * Eat! Hades - hospitable god; food of the dead/ pomegranate;
Theseus & Perithous are seated at his eternal banquet. (cf. traditional stelae - gravestones, representing the deceased at a banquet.) * Fly around, endlessly blown in a listless whirlwind. Achilles in the Odyssey would exchange his prominent status among the dead for the life of a poor farmer's hireling above. * The dead know the past and future, but are unaware of the present. * Some lucky have a good time in Elysium. * Some few serve the eternal time of punishment (Tityus; Ixion; Tantalus; Sisyphus; the 49 daughters of Danaus.) |
CATABASIS - DESCENSUS AVERNO - DESCENT TO THE UNDERWORLD:
The theme of visiting the realm of death is central to epic tradition.
| Why do alive people go to the realm of the death? | * For advise/ prophecy - Odysseus (Nekyia); Aeneas.
* To bring somebody or something from the realm of the dead. (Gilgamesh; Orpheus; Heracles, et al.) |
| Gilgamesh | Mesopotamia, 2500 B.C. - In search for immortality. He only manages to bring a good advise from his divine ancestor Utnapishtim, survivor of the flood. |
| Odysseus | Homeric epic, 900 B.C.: sent by Kirke (the goddess of metempsychosis?) to inquire of the way home. |
| Heracles | Brings Cerberus; returns Theseus; fights Thanatos and returns Alcestis. |
| Theseus & Peritous | In hope to re-abduct Persephone. Invited to join for dinner, got stuck to the rock seat. |
| Orpheus | For Eurydice: fails by looking back. |
| Psyche | On the demand of the mother-in-law, Aphrodite, to fetch a bit of Persephone's beauty. |
| Aeneas | In Vergil (Rome ~10 B.C.) - to visit his father, who shows him the future of Rome. Vergil had influenced the vision of Dante, Inferno, A.D. 1265 - the central piece of European literature. |
| Odin | Old Norse, ~A.D. 500. He awakes the dead Volva = Nordic Sibyl; she prophecises the doom of gods and the Ragnarok. |
| Mesopotamian goddess Istar; Persephone; Orphic Demeter | Temporary confinement in the realm of death with subsequent return. |
| Dionysus | Awakes mother Semele from her grave; saves and marries Ariadne (god-savior). |
| cf. Jesus | Descending to the Underworld to release the souls of the patriarchs
("the harrowing of hell").
The purpose of Orpheus; Heracles; Demeter and Dionysus' catabasis is to release the souls from death: the prime focus of a mystery-religion. |
PHILOSOPHY OF DEATH: