Editing Pluto (mythology) (section)

== Mythology ==
{{See also|Persephone#Abduction myth|l1=Abduction of Persephone}}
[[File:Gianlorenzo bernini, ratto di proserpina, 1621-22, 02.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[The Rape of Proserpina]]'' by [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini]] at the [[Galleria Borghese]] in Rome]]
The best-known myth involving Pluto or Hades is the abduction of Persephone, also known as Kore ("the Maiden"). The earliest literary versions of the myth are a brief mention in Hesiod's ''Theogony'' and the extended narrative of the ''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]];'' in both these works, the ruler of the underworld is named as Hades ("the Hidden One"). Hades is an unsympathetic figure, and Persephone's unwillingness is emphasized.<ref>Diane Rayor, ''The Homeric Hymns'' (University of California Press, 2004), pp. 107–109.</ref> Increased usage of the name ''Plouton'' in religious inscriptions and literary texts reflects the influence of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], which treated Pluto and Persephone as a divine couple who received initiates in the afterlife; as such, Pluto was disassociated from the "violent abductor" of Kore.<ref>Christos Tsagalis, ''Inscribing Sorrow: Fourth-century Attic Funerary Epigrams'' (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008), pp. 101–102.</ref> Two early works that give the abductor god's name as Pluto are the Greek [[mythography]] traditionally known as the [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|''Library'' of "Apollodorus"]] (1st century BC)<ref>Sources used to prepare this article uniformly refer to the ''Bibliotheca'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus as the ''Library'' of Apollodorus. Recent scholarship prefers to view the authorship of this work as anonymous; see [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)]].</ref> and the Latin ''[[Fabulae]]'' (''ca.'' 64 BC–AD 17).<ref>[[Hyginus (Fabulae)|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' 146. The [[late antiquity|late-antique]] mythographer [[Fabius Planciades Fulgentius|Fulgentius]] also names the ruler of the underworld as Pluto, a practice continued by medieval mythographers.</ref>

The most influential version of the abduction myth is that of [[Ovid]] (d. 17 or 18 AD), who tells the story in both the ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' (Book 5) and the ''[[Fasti (Ovid)|Fasti]]'' (Book 4).<ref>Andrew D. Radford, ''The Lost Girls: Demeter-Persephone and the Literary Imagination, 1850–1930'' (Editions Rodopi, 2007), p. 24. For an extensive comparison of Ovid's two treatments of the myth, with reference to versions such as the ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', see Stephen Hinds, ''The Metamorphosis of Persephone: Ovid and the Self-Conscious Muse'' (Cambridge University Press, 1987), [https://books.google.com/books?id=o2o4ZiyIjmAC limited preview online.]</ref> Another major retelling, also in Latin, is the long unfinished poem ''De raptu Proserpinae'' ("On the Abduction of Proserpina") by [[Claudian]] (d. 404 AD). Ovid uses the name ''Dis'', not ''Pluto'' in these two passages,<ref>In Book 6 of the ''[[Aeneid]]'' (the [[catabasis]] of [[Aeneas]]), [[Vergil]] also names the ruler of the underworld more often as ''Dis'' than ''Pluto''.</ref> and Claudian uses ''Pluto'' only once; translators and [[commentary (philology)|editors]], however, sometimes supply the more familiar "Pluto" when other epithets appear in the [[source text]].<ref>See also, for instance, J.J.L. Smolenaars, ''Statius. Thebaid VII: A Commentary'' (Brill, 1994), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=gpDQnPv0HvIC&q=pluto passim]'', or John G. Fitch, ''Seneca's 'Hercules Furens' ''(Cornell University Press, 1987), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=m4X_7m7ama4C&q=pluto+OR+plutonem+OR+plutone+OR+plutoni+OR+plutonis passim]'', where the ruler of the underworld is referred to as "Pluto" in the English commentary, but as "Dis" or with other epithets in the Latin text.</ref> The abduction myth was a popular subject for [[ancient Greek art|Greek]] and [[Roman art]], and recurs throughout Western art and literature, where the name "Pluto" becomes common (see [[#In Western art and literature|Pluto in Western art and literature]] below). Narrative details from Ovid and Claudian influence these later versions in which the abductor is named as Pluto, especially the role of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] and [[Cupid]] in manipulating Pluto with love and desire.<ref>Radford, ''The Lost Girls'', p. 22 ''et passim''.</ref> Throughout the [[Middle Ages]] and [[Renaissance]], and certainly by the time of [[Natale Conti]]'s influential ''Mythologiae'' (1567), the traditions pertaining to the various rulers of the classical underworld coalesced into a [[classical mythology|single mythology]] that made few if any distinctions among Hades, Pluto, Dis, and Orcus.
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=== Offspring ===
Unlike his freely procreating brothers Zeus and Poseidon, Pluto is [[wikt:monogamous|monogamous]], and is rarely said to have children.<ref>[[Natale Conti]] observes (''Mythologiae'' 2.9, edition of 1651, p. 174) that before the abduction, Pluto was the only childless bachelor among the gods ''(solus omnium deorum coelibem et filiis carentem vitam traduceret)''. The [[nymph]] [[Minthe|Minthē]] was the concubine (''pallakis'', [[Strabo]] 8.3.14) of the ruler of the underworld under the name of Hades, but no ancient source records Pluto in this role; Conti, however, describes Minthē ''(Menthe)'' as the ''pellex'' of Pluto.</ref> In [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic texts]],<ref>Orphic fragments 197 and 360 (edition of Kern) and ''[[Orphic Hymns|Orphic Hymn]]'' 70, as cited by [[Helene P. Foley]], ''Hymn to Demeter'' (Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 110, note 97.</ref> the chthonic nymph [[Melinoe]] is the daughter of Persephone by Zeus disguised as Pluto,<ref>''Orphic Hymn'' 71.</ref> and the [[Erinyes|Eumenides]] ("The Kindly Ones") are the offspring of Persephone and ''Zeus Chthonios'', often identified as Pluto.<ref>Robertson, ''Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities'', p. 102. Robertson holds that in the Orphic tradition, the Eumenides are distinguished from the Furies (Greek [[Erinyes]]). Vergil [[conflation|conflates]] the Eumenides and the [[Furies]], and elsewhere says that Night ''([[Nox (mythology)|Nox]])'' is their mother. [[Proclus]], in his [[commentary (philology)|commentary]] on the ''[[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]]'' of [[Plato]], provides passages from the Orphic ''Rhapsodies'' that give two different genealogies of the Eumenides, one making them the offspring of Persephone and Pluto (or Hades) and the other reporting a prophecy that they were to be born to Persephone and [[Apollo]] (Robertson, ''Religion and Reconciliation'', p. 101).</ref> The [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Augustan poet]] [[Vergil]] says that Pluto is the father of the [[Furies]],<ref>When she had spoken these words, fearsome, she sought the earth: and summoned Allecto, the grief-bringer, from the house of the Fatal Furies, from the infernal shadows: in whose mind are sad wars, angers and deceits, and guilty crimes. A monster, hated by her own father Pluto, hateful to her Tartarean sisters: she assumes so many forms, her features are so savage, she sports so many black vipers. Juno roused her with these words, saying: 'Grant me a favour of my own, virgin daughter of Night, this service, so that my honour and glory are not weakened, and give way, and the people of Aeneas cannot woo Latinus with intermarriage, or fill the bounds of Italy(Aeneid 7.323 – Verg. A. 7.334 ). http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:phi,0690,003:7:337</ref> but the mother is the goddess Nox ([[Nyx]]),<ref>Men speak of twin plagues, named the Dread Ones, whom Night bore untimely, in one birth with Tartarean Megaera, wreathing them equally in snaky coils, and adding wings swift as the wind.)." ( Aeneid 12. 845 – 12. 848 ff )</ref> not his wife Persephone.The lack of a clear distinction between Pluto and "chthonic Zeus" confuses the question of whether in some traditions, now obscure, Persephone bore children to her husband. In the late 4th century AD, Claudian's epic on the abduction motivates Pluto with a desire for children. The poem is unfinished, however, and anything Claudian may have known of these traditions is lost.<ref>Foley, ''Hymn to Demeter'', p. 110.</ref>

[[Justin Martyr]] (2nd century AD) alludes to children of Pluto, but neither names nor enumerates them.<ref>[[Justin Martyr]], ''Apology'' [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iii.v.html 2.5]; see discussion of the context by David Dawson, ''Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria'' (University of California Press, 1992), pp. 193–194.</ref> [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]] (5th century AD) mentions a "son of Pluto."<ref>[[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]], lexicon entry on Ἰσοδαίτης (''Isodaitês''), 778 in the 1867 edition of Schmidt.</ref> In his 14th-century mythography, [[Boccaccio]] records a tradition in which Pluto was the father of the divine personification Veneratio ("Reverence"), noting that she had no mother because [[Proserpina]] (the Latin name of Persephone) was sterile.<ref>David Scott Wilson-Okamura, ''Virgil in the Renaissance'' (Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 169, citing Boccaccio, ''[[Genealogia deorum gentilium]]'' 8.6; see also the Italian translation of 1644, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uQyMh91Ap2MC&q=Veneratione p. 130.] Boccaccio cites Servius as his source, adding that [[Theodontius]] names the daughter of Pluto as Reverentia and says she was married to [[Honos]] ("Honor"). [[Macaria (daughter of Hades)|Macaria]], or "blessedness," was a daughter of Hades, according to the [[Suda]].</ref>

In ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' (1590s), [[Edmund Spenser]] invents a daughter for Pluto whom he calls Lucifera.<ref>"Of griesly Pluto she the daughter was": [[Edmund Spenser]], ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'', I.iv.11.1, as noted by G.W. Kitchin, ''Book I of The Faery Queene'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879, 9th ed.), p. 180. In the 15th-century allegory ''[[The Assembly of Gods]]'' (lines 601–602), the figure of [[Vice]] personified is the bastard son of Pluto.</ref> The character's name was taken from the 16th-century mythography of Natale Conti, who used it as the Latin translation of Greek ''phosphor'', "light-bearer," a regular epithet of [[Hecate]].<ref>A.C. Hamilton, ''The Spenser Encyclopedia'' (University of Toronto Press, 1990, 1997), p. 351, noting that Hecate is called a "phosphor", bringer of light, by [[Euripides]], ''Helen'' 569. The title ''Phosphoros'' is a common one for Hecate; Sarah Iles Johnston, ''Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece'' (University of California Press, 1999), p. 206.</ref> Spenser incorporated aspects of the mysteries into ''The Faerie Queene''.<ref>Douglas Brooks-Davies, entry on "Mysteries" in ''The Spenser Encyclopedia'', pp. 486–487.</ref>

=== Pluto and Orpheus ===
[[File:Jan Brueghel (I) - Orpheus in the Underworld - WGA03564.jpg|thumb|''Orpheus before Pluto and Proserpina'' (1605), by [[Jan Brueghel the Elder]].]]
[[Orpheus]] was regarded as a founder and prophet of the mysteries called "[[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]]," "[[Dionysian Mysteries|Dionysiac]]," or "[[Bacchanalia|Bacchic]]." Mythologized for his ability to entrance even animals and trees with his music, he was also credited in antiquity with the authorship of the lyrics that have survived as the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'', among them a [[#Orphic Hymn to Pluto|hymn to Pluto]]. Orpheus's voice and lyre-playing represented a medium of revelation or higher knowledge for the mystery cults.<ref>Claude Calame, "The Authority of Orpheus, Poet and Bard: Between Tradition and Written Practice," in ''Allusion, Authority, and Truth: Critical Perspectives on Greek Poetic and Rhetorical Praxis'' (De Gruyter, 2010), p. 16.</ref>

In his central myth, Orpheus [[descent to the underworld|visits the underworld]] in the hope of retrieving his bride, [[Eurydice]], relying on the power of his music to charm the king and queen of Hades. Greek narratives of Orpheus's descent and performance typically name the ruler of the underworld as ''Plouton'', as for instance in the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]''.<ref>As accurately reflected by the translation of Michael Simpson, ''Gods and Heroes of the Greeks: The Library of Apollodorus'' (University of Massachusetts Press, 1976), pp. 13–15. Apollodorus consistently names the ruler of the underworld ''Plouton'' throughout, including the myths of his birth, tripartite division of sovereignty over the world, and the abduction.</ref> The myth demonstrates the importance of Pluto "the Rich" as the possessor of a quest-object. Orpheus performing before Pluto and Persephone was a common subject of ancient and later Western literature and art, and one of the most significant mythological themes of the [[classical tradition]].<ref>Geoffrey Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology'' (Routledge, 1999), p. 54ff.</ref>

The demonstration of Orpheus's power depends on the normal obduracy of Pluto; the [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Augustan poet]] [[Horace]] describes him as incapable of tears.<ref>[[Horace]], ''Carmen'' 2.14.6–7, ''inlacrimabilem Plutona'' (Greek accusative instead of Latin ''Plutonem'').</ref> Claudian, however, portrays the steely god as succumbing to Orpheus's song so that "with iron cloak he wipes his tears" ''(ferrugineo lacrimas deterget amictu)'', an image renewed by [[John Milton|Milton]] in ''[[Il Penseroso]]'' (106–107): "Such [[Music notes|notes]] ... / Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek."<ref>A.S.P. Woodhouse ''et al.'', ''A Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton'' (Columbia University Press, 1972), p. 327.</ref>

The Greek writer [[Lucian]] (''ca.'' 125–after 180 AD) suggests that Pluto's love for his wife gave the ruler of the underworld a special sympathy or insight into lovers parted by death.<ref>In the dialogue ''Amatorius'' (Ἐρωτικός) [https://archive.org/details/ploutarchoutouc01dbgoog/page/n194 <!-- pg=931 quote="soli amori plutonem". --> 20], [[Plutarch]] says that the only god Hades listens to is [[Eros]]; the 17th-century classicist [[Daniel Clasen]], translating the ''Moralia'' into Latin, gives the god's name as Pluto, and in his mythographical work ''Theologia gentilis'' 2.4.6 includes this quality in his chapter on Pluto; see ''Thesaurus graecarum antiquitatum'' (Leiden, 1699), vol. 7, 104.</ref> In one of Lucian's ''Dialogues of the Dead'', Pluto questions [[Protesilaus]], the first Greek hero killed in the [[Trojan War]], who wishes to return to the world of the living. "You are then in love with life?", Pluto asks. "Such lovers we have here in plenty; but they love an object, which none of them can obtain." Protesilaus explains, like an Orpheus in reverse, that he has left behind a young bride whose memory even the [[Lethe]]'s waters of forgetting have not erased from him. Pluto assures him that death will reunite them someday, but Protesilaus argues that Pluto himself should understand love and its impatience, and reminds the king of his grant to Orpheus and to [[Alcestis]], who took her husband's place in death and then was permitted at the insistence of [[Heracles]] to return to him. When Persephone intercedes for the dead warrior, Pluto grants the request at once, though allowing only one day for the reunion.<ref>Lucian, ''Dialogues of the Dead'' 23 (English translation from the 1820 edition of [[William Tooke]]; Jan Kott, ''The Eating of the Gods'' (Northwestern University Press, 1987), pp. 95–97. Lucian's dialogue has sometimes been referenced as a model for the premature loss of love between an active man carried suddenly into death and his young wife; see for instance Alfred Woltmann, ''[[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]] and His Times'' (London, 1872), p. 280, and [[Addison Peale Russell|A.P. Russell]], ''In a Club Corner: The Monologue of a Man Who Might Have Been Sociable'' (Houghton, Mifflin, 1890), pp. 78–79. The dialogue has also been seen as a [[burlesque]] of [[wikt:domesticity|domesticity]]; Betrand A. Goldgar, ''Henry Fielding: Miscellanies'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1993), vol. 2, p. xxxviii.</ref>