Editing Pluto (mythology) (section)

==== Plouton Helios ====
[[File:Caravaggio Jupiter Neptune Pluto vertical.jpg|thumb|left|''Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto'', ceiling mural (''ca.'' 1597) by [[Caravaggio]] (see description under [[#Fine art|Fine art below)]]]]
A dedicatory inscription from [[Smyrna]] describes a 1st–2nd century sanctuary to "God Himself" as the most exalted of a group of six deities, including clothed statues of ''Plouton Helios'' and ''Koure Selene'', "Pluto the Sun" and "Kore the Moon."<ref>Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," p. 101ff. The other deities are ''Helios Apollon'', who is paired with [[Artemis]] (p. 106); Zeus, who is subordinated to "God Himself"; and [[Men (god)|Mēn]], an Anatolian moon deity sometimes identified with [[Attis]], who had a table before him for ceremonial dining (pp. 106, 109).</ref> The status of Pluto and Kore as a divine couple is marked by what the text describes as a "linen embroidered bridal curtain."<ref>Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," pp. 104–105.</ref> The two are placed as bride and groom within an enclosed temple, separately from the other deities cultivated at the sanctuary.

''Plouton Helios'' is mentioned in other literary sources in connection with ''Koure Selene'' and ''Helios Apollon''; the sun on its nighttime course was sometimes envisioned as traveling through the underworld on its return to the east. [[Apuleius]] describes a rite in which the sun appears at midnight to the initiate at the gates of Proserpina; it has been suggested that this midnight sun could be ''Plouton Helios''.<ref>Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," p. 111.</ref>

The Smyrna inscription also records the presence of ''Helios Apollon'' at the sanctuary. As two forms of Helios, Apollo and Pluto pose a dichotomy:
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
! Helios Apollon !! Plouton Helios
|-
| One || Many
|-
| clarity || invisibility
|-
| bright || dark
|-
| memory || oblivion<ref>Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," pp. 110–111, 114, with reference to the teachings of [[Ammonius of Athens|Ammonius]] as recorded by [[Plutarch]], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/misctracts/plutarchE.html ''The E at Delphi''.] The relevant passage (21) is: "This appears from the names, in themselves opposite and contradictory. He is called Apollo, another is called Pluto; he is Delius (apparent), the other Aidoneus (invisible); he is Phoebus (bright), the other Skotios (full of darkness); by his side are the [[Muses]], and [[Mnemosyne|Memory]], with the other are Oblivion and Silence; he is Theorius and Phanæus, the other is 'King of dim Night and ineffectual Sleep'." See also Frederick E. Brenk, "Plutarch's Middle Platonic God," ''Gott und die Götter bei Plutarch'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2005), pp. 37–43, on Plutarch's etymological plays that produce these antitheses.</ref>
|}
It has been argued that the sanctuary was in the keeping of a [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean]] [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#sodalitas|sodality or "brotherhood"]]. The relation of Orphic beliefs to the mystic strand of Pythagoreanism, or of these to [[Platonism]] and [[Neoplatonism]], is complex and much debated.<ref>Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," ''passim'', conclusion presented on p. 119. Thompson bases his argument on the particular collocation of deities at the sanctuary, and explicating theological details in the inscription through comparative material. See also [[Neoplatonism and Gnosticism]].</ref>