Hades god of the underworld full#

And the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her. She was filled with a sense of wonder, and she reached out with both hands to take hold of the pretty plaything. Hades, smitten with the childlike Persephone and perhaps a little lonely in the underworld, tempted her with a beautiful flower, seized her when she bent down to pick it, then drew her into the depths to rule by his side. It is the tale of the capture of his wife, the goddess Persephone, daughter of Demeter (and also Hades' sister) and Zeus. The most famous story about Hades centers around a brief foray outside of his kingdom. So there's no sense in the ancient stuff, that I know, that he's somehow lost out and he's angry or something.' 'He was presented in this poem, ' The Hymn to Demeter,' as being a good catch, because he's rich and he's related to Zeus. He's the one who can kind of control what comes out of the earth. 'The fact that he's connected also with Persephone, who's connected with fertility and crops, gives you the impression that he's got a pretty good deal. Martin, a professor of classics at Stanford University and the author of ' Classic Mythology: The Basics' and several other books and articles on Greek, Latin and Irish literature.

'He has this other name - Pluto - which means 'the rich one,'' explains Richard P. In fact, people ended up naming the underworld after him. Poseidon assumed control of the seas.Īnd Hades ended up with a mixed bag, ruling over both the dead and everything under the earth, including seeds, grains, gold and silver. Afterward, these new gods - the Olympians - split up the cosmos: Zeus, god of sky and the heavens (among other cool gigs), became king of the gods. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, earned that status by knocking off the old-guard gods, the Titans, in a 10-year war known as the Titanomachy. Still, Hades was a god and therefore commanded some respect from the Greeks.