The Greek thoughts on the death and the underworld

The Gods

Hades, the god

Hades was the king and god of the underworld and a pretty gloomy guy. The Romans called him Pluto. There is a planet named after him.

Persephone

Persephone was daughter of Demeter, a beautiful maiden, and the queen of Hades forced to spend three months of every year in the underworld.

Hermes

Hermes guided souls to the underworld. He was also the only being, mortal or immortal, allowed to cross back and forth across the River Styx. He was a god.

Charon, the Ferry Man

He was the shade who guided the newest shades across the River Styx into Hades, the underworld. Charon needed to be paid so only the shades who had a gold coin could take his boat. The other shades had to wander around until they found the beggar’s entrance to the underworld. In a family that had enough money, they put a coin under the deceased’s tongue to pay Charon.

Shades

Shades are the people of the underworld, mortals who have died.

Cerberus

Cerberus was a three-headed dog who prevented anyone from crossing the River Styx back into the mortal world. He was Hades’ pet dog.

The Legend of Hades and Persephone

Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. Persephone was kidnapped by Hades to be his queen and wife.

Demeter was so grief stricken by the loss of her daughter that she no longer cared for the crops of the people. The crops all shriveled and died and no one had anything to eat.

All the mortals cried to the gods until at last Zeus, the chief god, could no longer ignore them and he interfered. Zeus made Hades give Persephone back.

Persephone had eaten a few seeds from a pomegranate, though. If you eat in the underworld, you may never return to the land of the mortals.

Persephone, having only eaten three seeds, was forced to spend three months in the underworld as Hades’ queen. The rest of the time she remained of the world with her mother.

Hades, the underworld

The underworld was a parallel dimension where the mortals go at the end of their lives. The sun shines, all your troubles are left behind, it is no different from earth, except for the fire river, Phlegethon. Bad people got punished in the underworld by select punishments given by the judges Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus. Heroes got to live without work or anything else.

River Phlegethon

A river whose banks are pure fire. It guards Tartarus, the deepest pit on earth, whose entrance was in the underworld. It was the prison for gods.

River Styx

The River Styx was the river that separated Hades from the mortal world. Cerberus, the ferocious three-headed dog prevented anyone from leaving Hades across the River Styx. Charon, the Ferry Man, ferried people across the River Styx, but only the ones who had money to pay him.

River Lethe

The River Lethe was the river that made you forget your very name. The shades could choose to go in or not. A person who had bad memories or strong longings that couldn’t be fulfilled would go in the River Lethe to get cleaned and forget his troubles.