Hades

Hades, the Roman Pluto or Dis, is the god of the underworld and the ruler of the dead. Brother of Zeus and Poseidon, he drew the realm below as his portion when the three divided the cosmos. His very name means 'the unseen', and the Greeks, fearing to speak it, often called him Plouton, 'the rich one', for the wealth of grain and metal that comes from beneath the earth.

He is not an evil god but a stern and just keeper of his domain, from which there is, for the body, no return. His abduction of Persephone gave him a queen and bound the underworld into the cycle of the seasons and the Mysteries. In the Platonic reading, the descent into the house of Hades is the soul's fall into the body and the realm of generation, from which philosophy — the practice of dying — seeks to lead it home.

Epithets

• Plouton Πλούτων — the wealth-giver (Pluto)
• Eubouleus Εὐβουλεύς — giver of good counsel
• Polydegmon Πολυδέγμων — host of many, receiver of all
• Klymenos Κλύμενος — the renowned (a euphemism)
• Dis Pater Lat. — the rich father (Roman)
• Orcus Lat. — Roman god of the death-oath