Editing Hades (section)

==Cult and epithets==
[[Image:Hades.png|thumb|left|Hades and Cerberus, in ''[[Meyers Konversationslexikon]]'', 1888]]

Hades, as the god of the dead, was a fearsome figure to those still living; in no hurry to meet him, they were reluctant to swear oaths in his name, and averted their faces when sacrificing to him. Since to many, simply to say the word "Hades" was frightening, [[euphemism]]s were pressed into use. Since precious minerals come from under the earth (i.e., the "underworld" ruled by Hades), he was considered to have control of these as well, and as such the Greeks referred to him as Πλούτων (Greek ''Plouton''; Latin PLVTO, [[Pluto (mythology)|''Pluto'']], "the rich one"). This title is derived from the word ''Ploutos'' ({{langx|grc|Πλοῦτος|Ploútos|wealth, riches}}, {{IPA|grc|ˈpluː.tos|}}). [[Sophocles]] explained the notion of referring to Hades as ''Plouton'' with these words: "the gloomy Hades enriches himself with our sighs and our tears." In addition, he was called Clymenus ({{lang|grc|Κλύμενος}}, ''Klýmenos'', 'infamous', {{IPA|grc|ˈkly.me.nos|}}), Polydegmon ({{lang|grc|Πολυδέγμων}}, ''Polydégmon'',  'host of many', {{IPA|grc|po.lyˈdeg.mɔːn|}}), and perhaps [[Eubuleus]] ({{lang|grc|Εὐβουλεύς}}, ''Eubouleús'',  'good counsel', {{IPA|grc|eu̯.buːˈleu̯s|}}),<ref>The name ''Eubouleos'' is more often seen as an [[epithet]] for [[Dionysus]] or [[Zeus]].</ref> all of them euphemisms for a name that was unsafe to pronounce, which evolved into [[epithet]]s.

He spent most of the time in his dark realm. Formidable in battle, he proved his ferocity in the famous [[Titanomachy]], the battle of the Olympians versus the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]], which established the rule of Zeus.

Feared and loathed, Hades embodied the inexorable finality of death: "Why do we loathe Hades more than any god, if not because he is so adamantine and unyielding?" The rhetorical question is [[Agamemnon]]'s.<ref>''[[Iliad]]'', ix</ref> Hades was not, however, an evil god, for although he was stern, cruel, and unpitying, he was still just. Hades ruled the underworld and was therefore most often associated with death and feared by men, but he was not Death itself — it is [[Thanatos]], son of [[Nyx]] and [[Erebus]], who is the actual personification of death, although Euripides's play "''Alkestis''" states fairly clearly that Thanatos and Hades were one and the same deity, and gives an interesting description of Hades as being dark-cloaked and winged.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Euripides Alcestis: With Introduction and Commentary|last=Parker|first=L. P. E.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=9780191569012|location=Oxford|pages=109}}</ref>

When the Greeks propitiated Hades, they banged their hands on the ground to be sure he would hear them.<ref>"Hades never knows what is happening in the world above, or in Olympus, except for fragmentary information which comes to him when mortals strike their hands upon the earth and invoke him with oaths and curses" ([[Robert Graves]], ''The Greek Myths'' 1960: §31.e).</ref> Black animals, such as sheep, were sacrificed to him. While some suggest the very vehemence of the rejection of [[human sacrifice]] expressed in myth might imply an unspoken memory of some distant past, there is no direct evidence of such a turn.<ref>Dennis D. Hughes, ''Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece'' (London: Routledge, 2013), 49-70. {{ISBN|9781134966394}}
books.google.com/books?id=1iktBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA49</ref> The blood from all [[chthonic]] sacrifices including those to propitiate Hades dripped into a pit or cleft in the ground. The person who offered the sacrifice had to avert his face.<ref>Kerényi 1951, p. 231.</ref>

One ancient source says that he possessed the [[Cap of invisibility]]. His chariot, drawn by four black horses, made for a fearsome and impressive sight. These beasts were variously named as, according to [[Claudian]]: [[Orphnaeus]], [[Aethon]], [[Nycteus]] and [[Alastor]] while other authors listed also: Nonius, Ametheus, Abastor, Abetor and Metheus. His other ordinary attributes were the narcissus and cypress plants, the [[Pluto (mythology)#The keys of Pluto|Key of Hades]] and Cerberus, the three-headed dog.<ref>{{cite book|last1=See|first1=Sally|title=The Greek Myths|date=2014|publisher=S&T|page=21|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=onDwBQAAQBAJ&q=hades+attributes+narcissus+cypress&pg=PA21|access-date=18 January 2017}}</ref> In certain portraits, snakes also appeared to be attributed to Hades<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/snakesymbolism.html|title=Snake Symbolism|date=1998|website=The Psychology of Dreams|access-date=5 September 2017}}</ref> as he was occasionally portrayed to be either holding them or accompanied by them. This is believed to hold significance as in certain classical sources Hades ravished Kore in the guise of a snake, who went on to give birth to Zagreus-Dionysus.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Morgantina Studies, Volume I: The Terracottas|last=Bell|first=Malcolm|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1982|isbn=9781400853243|pages=88, 89, 90, 106, 168, 254}}</ref> While bearing the name 'Zeus', Zeus Olympios, the great king of the gods, noticeably differs from the Zeus Meilichios, a decidedly chthonian character, often portrayed as a snake,<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Companion to Greek Religion|last=Ogden|first=Daniel|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2008|isbn=978-0470997345}}</ref> and as seen beforehand, they cannot be different manifestations of the same god,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Coping With the Gods: Wayward Readings in Greek Theology|last=Versnel|first=Henk|publisher=Brill|year=2011|isbn=978-90-04-20490-4|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004204904.i-594|s2cid=220830615 }}</ref> in fact whenever 'another Zeus' is mentioned, this always refers to Hades.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Different God?: Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism|last=Schlesier|first=Renate|publisher=Freie University|year=2012|isbn=9783110222357|location=Berlin, Germany.|pages=27, 28}}</ref> Zeus [[Meilichios]] and Zeus [[Eubuleus|Eubouleus]] are often referred to as being alternate names for Hades.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization|last=Hornblower, Spawforth, Eidinow|first=Simon, Antony, Esther|publisher=OUP Oxford|year=2014|isbn=9780191016752|location=Oxford|pages=354}}</ref>

The philosopher [[Heraclitus]], unifying opposites, declared that Hades and [[Dionysus]], the very essence of indestructible life ''([[Life|zoë]])'', are the same god.<ref>Heraclitus, encountering the festival of the ''Phallophoria'', in which [[Phallus|phalli]] were paraded about, remarked in a surviving fragment: "If they did not order the procession in honor of the god and address the phallus song to him, this would be the most shameless behavior. But Hades is the same as Dionysos, for whom they rave and act like [[bacchantes]]", Kerényi 1976, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA239 pp. 239–240].</ref> Among other evidence, [[Karl Kerényi]] notes in his book<ref name="Kerényi 1991">{{Cite book|title=Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter|last=Kerényi|first=Karl|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1991|isbn=9780691019154}}</ref> that the Homeric Hymn To Demeter,<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerenyi:'' "The Hymn tells us that Persephone was abducted in Nysion pedion, or the Nysian Plain, a plain that was named after the Dionysian mountain of Nysa. Nysa was regarded as the birthplace and first home of Dionysus. The divine marriage of Plouton and Persephone was celebrated on ‘the meadow’. The dangerous region that Kore let herself be lured to in search of flowers was likely not originally connected to Plouton but to Dionysus, as Dionysus himself had the strange surname of ‘the gaping one’, though despite this the notion that the wine god in his quality as the Lord of the underworld does not appear on the surface of the hymn. People would not be able to detect the hidden meaning it if it was not for archaic vase portrayals." ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter [P. 34, 35,].''

"The Hymn to Demeter later mentions that Queen Metaneira of Eleusis later offers the disguised Demeter a beaker of sweet wine, something that Demeter refuses on the grounds that it would be against themis, the very nature of order and justice, for her to drink red wine and she instead invents a new beverage called kykeon to drink instead. The fact that Demeter refuses to drink wine on the grounds that it would be against themis indicates that she is well aware of who Persephone's abductor is, that it is the Subterranean cover name of Dionysus. The critic of the mysteries, the severe philosopher Herakleitos once declared “Hades is the same as Dionysos.” The subterranean wine god was the ravisher, so how could Demeter accept something that was his gift to mankind" [P. 40]</ref> votive marble images<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerenyi:''

"The book later refers to Herakles initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries so that he may enter the underworld. In the iconography after his initiation Herakles in shown wearing a fringed white garment with a Dionysian deerskin thrown over it. Kore is shown with her mother Demeter and a snake twined around the Mystery basket, foreshadowing the secret, as making friends with snakes was Dionysian [P. 58].
The god of the Anthesteria was Dionysus, who celebrated his marriage in Athens amid flowers, the opening of wine jars, and the rising up of the souls of the dead [P. 149]. 
There are two reliefs in a marble votive relief of the fourth century BCE. One depicts Kore crowning her mother Demeter, the deities at the second altar are Persephone and her husband Dionysus as the recumbent god has the features of the bearded Dionysus rather than of Plouton. In his right hand, he raises not a cornucopia, the symbol of wealth, but a wine vessel and in his left, he bears the goblet for the wine. Over their heads an inscription reads “To the God and Goddess” [P. 151, 152]. 
The fragments of a gilded jar cover of the Kerch type show Dionysus, Demeter, little Ploutos, Kore, and a curly-haired boy clad in a long garment, one of the first son's of the Eleusinian king who was the first to be initiated. 
On another vase, Dionysus sits on his omphalos with his thyrsos in his left hand, sitting opposite Demeter, looking at each other severely. Kore is shown moving from Demeter towards Dionysus, as if trying to reconcile them [P. 162]. ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter''</ref> and epithets<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerenyi:''

Kore and Thea are two different duplications of Persephone; Plouton and Theos are duplications of the subterranean Dionysus. The duplication of the mystery god as subterranean father and subterranean son, as father Zagreus and the child Zagreus, husband and son of Persephone, has more to do with the mysteries of Dionysus than with the Eleusinian Mysteries. But a duplication of the chthonian, mystical Dionysus is provided even by his youthful aspect, which became distinguished and classical as the son of Semele from the son of Persephone. Semele, though not of Eleusinian origin, is also a double of Persephone [P. 155]. ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter''</ref> all link Hades to being Dionysus. He also notes that the grieving goddess Demeter refused to drink wine, as she states that it would be against ''themis'' for her to drink wine, which is the gift of Dionysus, after Persephone's abduction, because of this association; indicating that Hades may in fact have been a "cover name" for the underworld Dionysus.<ref>Kerényi 1967, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ds1Wg01wzeYC&pg=PA40 p. 40].</ref> He suggests that this dual identity may have been familiar to those who came into contact with the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Mysteries]].<ref>Kerényi 1976, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA240 p.&nbsp;240].</ref> Dionysus also shared several epithets with Hades such as ''Chthonios'' ("the subterranean"),<ref>Kerényi 1976, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA83 83], [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA199 199].</ref><ref>''Orphic Hymns to the Eumenides,'' 69</ref> ''Eubouleus'' ("Good Counselor"), and ''Euclius'' ("glorious" or "renowned") .

[[File:NAMA 181 Eubouleus 2.JPG|thumb|Bust of [[Eubouleus]] in the [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]].]]
Evidence for a cult connection is quite extensive, particularly in southern Italy, especially when considering the death symbolism included in Dionysian worship;<ref>{{Cite book|title=What is a God?: Studies in the Nature of Greek Divinity|last=Loyd|first=Alan B|publisher=The Classical Press of Wales|year=2009|isbn=978-1905125357}}</ref><ref>Alan B Loyd: "“The identification of Hades and Dionysus does not seem to be a particular doctrine of Herakleitos, nor does it commit him to monotheism. The evidence for a cult connection between the two is quite extensive, particularly in Southern Italy, and the Dionysiac mysteries are associated with death rituals.”</ref> statues of Dionysus<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.my-favourite-planet.de/images/people/d-01/dionysus/athens_dj-28082013-2-0833c_dionysus-eleusis.jpg |title=Image Dionysus|website=my-favourite-planet.de|access-date=9 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.my-favourite-planet.de/images/people/d-01/dionysus/athens_dj-28082013-2-0826d_dionysus-eleusis.jpg|title=Image Dionysus|website=my-favourite-planet.de|access-date=9 April 2023}}</ref> found in the Ploutonion at Eleusis gives further evidence as the statue bears a striking resemblance to the statue of Eubouleus also known as the youthful depiction of the Lord of the underworld. The statue of Eubouleus is described as being radiant but disclosing a strange inner darkness.<ref name="Kerényi 1991"/>

Both Hades and Dionysus were associated with a divine tripartite deity with Zeus.<ref name=":2" /> The Orphics in particular believed that Zeus and Hades were the same deity and portrayed them as such.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Images of Eternal Beauty in Funerary Verse Inscriptions of the Hellenistic Period|last=Wypustek|first=Andrzej|publisher=BRILL|year=2012|isbn=978-9004233188}}</ref><ref>[[:pl:Andrzej Wypustek]] Andrzej Wypustek (Ph.D)] "Votive inscriptions frequently mentioned Pluto but very rarely Hades. Particularly at Eleusis, the Pluto cult was for a deity who, like Persephone and Demeter, was favourably disposed to humans. He was frequently portrayed as a majestic elder with a sceptre, ranch, cornucopia, pomegranate, or drinking vessel in his hand; sometimes he was accompanied by an eagle. His iconography resembled that of Zeus, and especially that of some chthonic personification of the ruler of the gods, above all Zeus Meilichios. We can now go a step further. The nearest equivalent to the contrast between Hades and Pluto as presented in the Theophile epigram can be found in the Orphic Hymns, which are assumed to have originated from the Τελεται of the Dionysiac mystic circles in Asia Minor of the 1st – 3rd centuries. Hymn 41 worships Antaia, i.e. Demeter, the goddess who had searched for her daughter in Hades and discovered her in ‘the sacred bed of the sacred chthonic Zeus’. This formulation in itself is not surprising because the name Zeus (as a synonym for a deity and ruler) was used in reference to Hades-Pluto as the ruler of the underworld. In an interesting, though, sadly, only partly preserved inscription from Appia-Murathanlar in the [[Tembris river|Tembris]] Valley (in 3rd century AD Phrygia) the deceased appeals to “Zeus, god of the dead [φθιηένων*], Pluto” to protect his grave. The term “Chthonic Zeus” could, however, mean something more than a mere euphemism for the name Hades. The idea of defining Zeus as χθόνιος, κατα (χθόνιος) ἄλλος or simply Hades had been present in ancient Greek literature from Homer to Nonnos. This was a sort of extension, aspect or ‘shadow’ of the universal power of Zeus in the kingdom of the dead, where he was the judge of the dead and the also the consort of Persephone-Kore.Moreover, he was the provider of riches, Πλουτοδότης; a personification which was abbreviated to Πλούτων. Among other things, he controlled the crops and it was to him (as well as to Demeter) that the farmers turned for the promise of a good harvest. These are hardly well known traditions today. Some scholars maintain that their obscurity is on account of the secret role they played in the mysteries. ... Therefore, the Orphics worshipped Pluto as the saviour and judge of the deceased, as Zeus χθόνιος. They most likely assumed that Zeus had another embodiment of sorts in the underworld, in Hades. The effect of this assumption was the myth, known to us in several versions, of how Zeus had lain with Persephone (even though she was his daughter). The so-called great Orphic tablet of Thurii refers to the abduction of Persephone by Zeus, who then fathers her son, Dionysus. Their child was revered by the Orphics as Dionysus Zagreus, Dionysus Iacchus, which shows how much importance they attached to the love affair of that particular couple." (''Images of Eternal Beauty in Funerary Verse Inscriptions of the Hellenistic Period''){{Circular reference|date=September 2021}}</ref> This nature and aspect of Hades and Zeus displayed in the Orphic stories is the explanation for why both Hades and Zeus are considered to be the father of Orphic Dionysus-Zagreus.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity|last=Rigoglioso|first=Marguerite|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2010|isbn=978-0-230-11312-1 |quote=Given that Zeus was also sometimes portrayed as having an incarnation in the underworld that was closely identified with Hades, we can read here that Zeus and Hades were essentially two representations of the same god. [...] The idea of Hades equals Dionysus, and that this dual god impregnated Persephone in the Eleusinian tradition, therefore, is in perfect accord with the story that Zeus impregnated her with Dionysus in Orphic myth, given that Hades equals Zeus, as well. Moreover, what we see from this esoteric complex is that, in seeding Persephone, Zeus/Hades/Dionysus created what Kerenyi perceptively calls 'a second, a little Dionysus,' a 'subterranean Zeus.'}}</ref> Orphics also described Zagreus as the son of Hades, while also regarding Zagreus as an aspect of Dionysus.{{sfn|Collard|O'Sullivan|2013|p=297}} The role of unifying Hades, Zeus and Dionysus as a single tripartite god was used to represent the birth, death and resurrection of a deity and to unify the 'shining' realm of Zeus and the dark realm of Hades that lay beneath the Earth.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The God who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited|last=Taylor-Perry|first=Rosemarie|publisher=Barnes & Noble|year=2003|isbn=9780875862309|pages=4, 22, 91, 92, 94, 168}}</ref><ref>Rosemarie Taylor-Perry: "“Interestingly it is often mentioned that Zeus, Hades and Dionysus were all attributed to being the exact same god... Being a tripartite deity Hades is also Zeus, doubling as being the Sky God or Zeus, Hades abducts his 'daughter' and paramour Persephone. The taking of Kore by Hades is the act which allows the conception and birth of a second integrating force: Iacchos (Zagreus-Dionysus), also known as Liknites, the helpless infant form of that Deity who is the unifier of the dark underworld (chthonic) realm of Hades and the Olympian ("Shining") one of Zeus.”</ref>

Among the other appellations under which Hades or Pluto is generally known, are the following:<ref>{{source-attribution|{{Cite book|title=A Classical Manual, being a Mythological, Historical and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil with a Copious Index|last=Murray|first=John|year=1833|location=Albemarle Street, London|pages=5–6}}}}</ref>

''In Greek:''

*'''Adesius''', his name in [[Latium]]. It is expressive of ''the grace''.
*'''Agelastus''', from his ''melancholy'' countenance.
*'''Agesilaus''', expressive of his ''attracting'' all ''people'' to his empire.
*'''Agetes''' o'''r Hegetes''', a name assigned to him by [[Pindar]], as to one who ''conducts''.
*'''Aidoneus''', as used by [[Plutarch]] in a euhemerised version of the story of Pirithous's failed abduction of Persephone in which the god is recast as a king of the [[Molossians]].<ref name=plutarchtheseus />
*'''Axiocersus''', or the ''shorn god'', a name of Pluto in the mysteries of the [[Cabeiri|Cabiri]]: he was there represented as ''without hair''.
*'''Iao''', his name at Clares, a town of [[Ionia]].
*'''Moiragetes''', his name as ''guide'' of ''the Fates''.
*'''Ophieus''', his name as the ''blind god'' among the [[Messenia (ancient region)|Messenians]]: it was derived from their dedicating certain [[Augur]]s to him, whom they deprived of sight at the moment of their birth.

''In Latin or Etruscan:''

*'''Altor''', from ''alo'', to nourish.
*'''[[Februus]]''', from ''Februa'', signifying the sacrifices and purifications adopted in funeral rites.
*'''Feralis Deus''', the ''dismal'' or ''cruel'' god.
*'''Lactum''', his name among the [[Sarmatians]].
*'''Larthy Tytiral''', ''sovereign of Tartarus'', his name in [[Etruria]].
*'''Mantus''' or '''Manus''', the diminutive of ''[[Summanus]]'', an Etruscan epithet.
*'''Niger Deus''', ''black god'', his epithet as god of the Infernal Regions.
*'''Opertus''', the ''concealed''.
*'''Postulio''', a name assigned to him by [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]], under which he was worshipped on the shores of the lake Curtius, from the circumstance of the earth's having opened at that spot, and of the [[Haruspex|Aruspices]] having presumed that the King of Death thus asked for (''postula'', I ask,) sacrifices.
*'''Profundus Jupiter''', ''deep'' or ''lower [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]]'', from his being sovereign of the ''deep'', or ''infernal'' regions.
*'''Quietalis''', from ''quies'', rest.
*'''Rusor''', because all things ''return'' eventually to the earth.
*'''Salutaris Divus''', a name assigned to him when he restored the dead to life. Whenever the gods wished to re-animate a body, Pluto let fail some drops of nectar from his urn upon the favoured person: this may account for bis being sometimes represented with an inverted vase.
*'''Saturnius''', from his father ''Saturn.''
*'''[[Soranus (mythology)|Soranus]]''', his name among the [[Sabines]], in the temple dedicated to him on [[Monte Soratte|Mount Soracte]].
*'''Stygius''', from the river Styx.
*'''[[Summanus]]''', from ''summus manium'', prince of the dead.
*'''Tellumo''', a name derived from those treasures which Pluto possesses in the recesses of the earth. Tellumo denotes (according to Varro) the ''creative'' power of the earth, in opposition to Tellus the ''productive''.
*'''Uragus''', expressive of bis power over ''fire''.
*'''Urgus''', from ''urgeo'', to impel.

''In Egypt:''

*'''Amenthes''', a name of Pluto among the [[Egyptians]]. [[Plutarch]] informs us, that the word ''Amenthes'' has a reference to the doctrines of the [[metempsychosis]], and signifies the "place which gives and receives";' on the belief that some vast gulf was assigned as a receptacle to the souls, which were about to animate new bodies.