Editing Pluto (mythology) (section)

== Plouton and Ploutos ==
[[File:Dionysos Ploutos BM F68.jpg|thumb|Ploutos with the [[Cornucopia|horn of abundance]], in the company of [[Dionysos]] (4th century BC)]]
''Plouton'' was one of several [[euphemism|euphemistic]] names for Hades, described in the ''[[Iliad]]'' as the god most hateful to mortals.<ref>Hansen, ''Classical Mythology'', pp. 162 and 182, citing [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' 9.158–159. Euphemism is a characteristic way of speaking of divine figures associated with the dead and the underworld; Joseph William Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 19 (1908), p. 66, considers euphemism a form of [[propitiation]].</ref> [[Plato]] says that people prefer the name ''Plouton'', "giver of wealth," because the name of [[Hades]] is fear-provoking.<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]]'' 403a; Glenn R. Morrow, ''Plato's Cretan City: A Historical Interpretation of the Laws'' (Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 452–453.</ref> The name was understood as referring to "the boundless riches of the earth, both the crops on its surface—he was originally a god of the land—and the mines hidden within it."<ref>Fernando Navarro Antolin, ''Lygdamus: Corpus Tibullianum III.1–6, Lygdami Elegiarum Liber'' (Brill, 1996), pp. 145–146.</ref> What is sometimes taken as "confusion" of the two gods ''Plouton'' and ''Ploutos'' ("Wealth") held or acquired a theological significance in antiquity. As a lord of abundance or riches, Pluto expresses the aspect of the underworld god that was positive, symbolized in art by the "horn of plenty" ([[cornucopia]]),<ref>Charlotte R. Long, ''The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome'' (Brill, 1987), p. 179; Phyllis Pray Bober, "Cernunnos: Origin and Transformation of a Celtic Divinity," ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 55 (1951), p. 28, examples in Greek and Roman art in note 98; Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," p. 65.</ref> by means of which ''Plouton'' is distinguished from the gloomier Hades.<ref>Tsagalis, ''Inscribing Sorrow'', pp. 101–102; Morrow, ''Plato's Cretan City'', pp. 452–453; John J. Hermann, Jr., "Demeter-Isis or the Egyptian Demeter? A Graeco-Roman Sculpture from an Egyptian Workshop in Boston" in ''Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts'' 114 (1999), p. 88.</ref>

The Roman poet [[Ennius]] (''ca.'' 239–169 BC), the leading figure in the [[Hellenization]] of [[Latin literature]], considered Pluto a Greek god to be explained in terms of the Roman equivalents Dis Pater and Orcus.<ref>''Pluto Latine est Dis pater, alii Orcum vocant'' ("In Latin, Pluto is Dis Pater; others call him Orcus"): [[Ennius]], ''Euhemerus'' frg. 7 in the edition of Vahlen = ''Var.'' 78 = E.H. Warmington, ''Remains of Old Latin'' (Heinemann, 1940), vol. 1, p. 421. The [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Augustan poet]] [[Horace]] retains the Greek [[accusative]] form of the noun (''Plutona'' instead of Latin ''Plutonem'') at ''Carmen'' 2.14.7, as noted by John Conington, ''P. Vergili Maronis Opera'' (London, 1883), vol. 3, p. 36.</ref> It is unclear whether Pluto had a literary presence in Rome before Ennius. Some scholars think that rituals and beliefs pertaining to Pluto entered Roman culture with the establishment of the [[Saecular Games]] in 249 BC, and that ''Dis pater'' was only a translation of ''Plouton''.<ref>H.D. Jocelyn, ''The Tragedies of Ennius'' (Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 331, with reference to [[Kurt Latte]], ''Römische Religionsgeschichte'' (C.H. Beck, 1967, 1992), p. 246ff.</ref> In the mid-1st century BC, [[Cicero]] identifies Pluto with Dis, explaining that "The earth in all its power and plenty is sacred to Father Dis, a name which is the same as ''Dives'', 'The Wealthy One,' as is the Greek ''Plouton''. This is because everything is born of the earth and returns to it again."<ref>Cicero, ''De natura deorum'' 2.66, translation of John MacDonald Ross (Penguin Books, 1972): ''Terrena autem vis omnis atque natura Diti patri dedicata est, qui dives, ut apud Graecos Πλούτων quia et recidunt omnia in terras et oriuntur e terris''.</ref>

During the [[Roman Empire|Roman Imperial era]], the Greek geographer [[Strabo]] (1st century AD) makes a distinction between Pluto and Hades. In writing of the mineral wealth of ancient [[Iberia]] ([[Hispania|Roman Spain]]), he says that among the [[Turdetani]], it is "Pluto, and not Hades, who inhabits the region down below."<ref>[[Strabo]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/3B*.html#9 3.2.9], citing [[Poseidonius]] as his source, who in turn cites [[Demetrius of Phalerum]] on the [[silver mine]]s of [[Attica]], where "the people dig as strenuously as if they expected to bring up Pluto himself" ([[Loeb Classical Library]] translation, in the [[LacusCurtius]] edition). The 16th-century mythographer [[Natale Conti]] describes Pluto's ''[[imperium]]'' as "[[Hispania#The Hispaniae|the Spains]] and all the places bordering the setting sun" (''Mythologiae'' 2.9, edition of 1651, p. 173; cf. Strabo 3.12).</ref> In the discourse ''On Mourning'' by the Greek author [[Lucian]] (2nd century AD), Pluto's "wealth" is the dead he rules over in the [[Chaos (cosmogony)|abyss ''(chasma)'']]; the name ''Hades'' is reserved for the underworld itself.<ref>Lucian, ''On Mourning'' (see [https://books.google.com/books?id=kmlJAAAAIAAJ Greek text]); Peter Bolt, ''Jesus' Defeat of Death: Persuading Mark's Early Readers'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003) discusses this passage (pp. 126–127) and Greco-Roman concepts of the underworld as a context for [[Christian eschatology]] ''passim''.</ref>

=== Other identifications ===
In Greek religious practice, Pluto is sometimes seen as the "chthonic Zeus" (''Zeus Chthonios''<ref>Noel Robertson, ''Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities: The Sacred Laws of Selinus and Cyrene'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 102, citing passages from the ''Orphic Hymns'', throughout which ''Plouton'' is the ruler of the underworld, and Hades is the name of the place itself.</ref> or ''Zeus Catachthonios''<ref>Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," p. 74, asserts that "Zeus Catachthonius seems certainly to be Pluto." Other deities to whom the title ''Katachthonios'' was affixed include Demeter, Persephone, and the Furies; Eugene Lane, "The Epithets of [[Men (god)|Men]]," ''Corpus monumentorum religionis dei Menis: Interpretation and Testimonia'' (Brill, 1976), vol. 3, p. 77, citing the entry on ''Katachthonioi'' in Roscher, ''Lexikon'' II, i, col. 998ff.</ref>), or at least as having functions or significance equivalent to those of Zeus but pertaining to the earth or underworld.<ref>Zeus Chthonius and Pluto are seen as having "the same significance" in the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'' and in the ''Dionysiaca'' of Nonnus (6.156ff.), by Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," p. 74, note 7. Overlapping functions are also suggested when [[Hesiod]] advises farmers to pray to "Zeus Chthonius and to holy Demeter that they may cause the holy corn of Demeter to teem in full perfection." This form of Zeus receives the black [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victima|victims]] typically offered to underworld deities.</ref> In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] and [[Hellenistic religion]], Pluto was [[interpretatio graeca|identified with]] a number of other deities, including [[Summanus]], the Roman god of nocturnal thunder;<ref>[[Martianus Capella]], ''De Nuptiis'' 2.161.</ref> [[Februus]], the Roman god from whose [[Februa|purification rites]] the [[Roman calendar|month of February]] takes its name and an Etruscans god of the underworld<ref>Capella, ''De nuptiis'' 2.149; [[Isidore of Seville]], ''Etymologies'' 5.33.4; [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], note to [[Vergil]]'s ''[[Georgics]]'' 1.43 (Vergil refrains from naming the god); [[John Lydus]], ''De mensibus'' 4.25.</ref> the [[syncretism|syncretic]] god [[Serapis]], regarded as Pluto's [[ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian equivalent]];<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''De Iside'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/B.html 27] (361e): "In fact, men assert that Pluto is none other than Serapis and that Persephone is [[Isis]], even as [[Archemachus of Euboea]] has said, and also [[Heracleides Ponticus]] who holds the oracle in [[Canopus, Egypt|Canopus]] to be an oracle of Pluto" ([[Loeb Classical Library]] translation of 1936, [[LacusCurtius]] edition). Also spelled Sarapis. See Jaime Alvar, ''Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras'', translated by Richard Gordon (Brill, 2008), pp. 53 [https://books.google.com/books?id=FH841IBf7mwC&dq=pluto&pg=PA53 online] and 58; Hermann, "Demeter-Isis or the Egyptian Demeter?", p. 84.</ref> and the [[Mot (Semitic god)|Semitic god Muth]] (Μούθ). Muth was described by [[Philo of Byblos]] as the equivalent of both [[Thanatos]] (Death [[personification|personified]]) and Pluto.<ref>[[Eusebius]], ''Praeparatio Evangelica'' [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/eusebius_pe_01_book1.htm 1.10.34], attributing this view to the semi-legendary Phoenician author [[Sanchuniathon]] via [[Philo of Byblos]]. In addition to asserting that Muth was equivalent to both [[Thanatos]] (Death [[personification|personified]]) and Pluto, Philo said he was the son of [[Cronus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]. See entry on "Mot," ''[[Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible]]'', edited by [[Karel van der Toorn]], Bob Becking and [[Pieter Willem van der Horst]] (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, 2nd ed.), p. 598, and ''Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide'', edited by Sarah Iles Johnston (Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 479. Philo's cosmogony as summarized by Eusebius bears some similarities to that of Hesiod and the Orphics; see [[Sanchuniathon#The history of the gods|Sanchuniathon's history of the gods]] and [[#Theogonies and cosmology|"Theogonies and cosmology" below.]] Philo said that these were reinterpretations of "Phoenician" beliefs by the Greeks.</ref> The ancient Greeks did not regard Pluto as "death" per se.<ref>Hansen, ''Classical Mythology'', p. 182.</ref>