Editing Pluto (mythology) (section)

=== Sanctuaries of Pluto ===
{{Main|Ploutonion}}
A sanctuary dedicated to Pluto was called a [[ploutonion]] (Latin ''plutonium''). The complex at [[Eleusis]] for the mysteries had a ploutonion regarded as the birthplace of the divine child Ploutos, in another instance of conflation or close association of the two gods.<ref>Bernard Dietrich, "The Religious Prehistory of Demeter's Eleusinian Mysteries," in ''La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' Impero Romano'' (Brill, 1982), p. 454.</ref> [[Inscriptiones Graecae|Greek inscriptions]] record an altar of Pluto, which was to be "plastered", that is, resurfaced for a new round of sacrifices at Eleusis.<ref>Robertson, ''Religion and Reconciliation'', p. 163 [https://books.google.com/books?id=5pyER-1-8VcC&dq=%22altar+of+pluto%22&pg=PA163 online], citing ''[[Inscriptiones Graecae|IG]]'' 1<sup>3</sup>356.155 and ''IG'' 2<sup>2</sup>1672.140; see also ''The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: Topography and Architecture'' (American School of Classical Studies, 1997), p. 76, note 31.</ref> One of the known ploutonia was in the [[sacred grove]] between [[Tralleis]] and [[Nysa (Caria)|Nysa]], where a temple of Pluto and Persephone was located. Visitors sought healing and [[incubation (ritual)|dream oracles]].<ref>Strabo [https://books.google.com/books?id=lfMrAAAAYAAJ&dq=ploutonion+OR+plutonion+OR+plutonium+inauthor%3AStrabo&pg=PA25 14.1.44]; "Summaries of Periodicals," ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 7 (1891), p. 209; Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," p. 93.</ref> The ploutonion at [[Hierapolis]], [[Phrygia]], was connected to the rites of [[Cybele]], but during the [[Roman Empire|Roman Imperial era]] was subsumed by the cult of [[Apollo]], as confirmed by archaeological investigations during the 1960s. It too was a dream oracle.<ref>Frederick E. Brenk, "Jerusalem-Hierapolis. The Revolt under Antiochos IV Epiphanes in the Light of Evidence for Hierapolis of Phrygia, Babylon, and Other Cities," in ''Relighting the Souls: Studies in Plutarch, in Greek Literature, Religion, and Philosophy, and in the New Testament Background'' (Franz Steiner, 1998), pp.  382–384, citing [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]], ''Life of Isidoros'' 131 on the dream.</ref> The sites often seem to have been chosen because the presence of naturally occurring [[wikt:mephitic air|mephitic vapors]] was thought to indicate an opening to the underworld.<ref>Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Reconstructing Change: Ideology and the Eleusinian Mysteries," in ''Inventing Ancient Culture: Historicism, Periodization and the Ancient World'' (Routledge, 1997), p. 137; [[Georg Luck]], ''Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2006, 2nd ed.), p. 505.</ref> In Italy, [[Avernus]] was considered an entrance to the underworld that produced toxic vapors, but Strabo seems not to think that it was a ploutonion.<ref>Strabo C244–6, as cited by Daniel Ogden, ''Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 190 –191.</ref>