Hades (mythology)

"No soul returns from my kingdom."

- Hades: Orpheus

Hades is the god of wealth and king of the Underworld in Greek mythology. He is synonymous with death, doom and fate, although he is not the actual god of death. He is the older brother of Zeus, god of the sky and Poseidon god of the sea. Though today we might associate him more as a necessary factor and a part of life, the ancient Greeks used him as an epitome of fear and dreaded him so much his name was rarely spoken aloud. Even then, however, he was rarely considered outright evil, and both Orphic hymns and Pythagorean shamanism refer to him as being as holy as Zeus. For the most part, Hellenic religion rarely if ever had truly evil beings. Nevertheless, Hades' legacy preceeds him, and even back in the days of ancient Greece, he was not a popular god.

Powers and Abilities
Hades is said to have worn a helmet that granted him invisibility and is his iconic item as Zeus has his lightning bolts and Poseidon his trident. Hades had a loyal monster dog named Cerberus who could actually eat the souls of the dead and hunted down any souls that tried to leave the underworld. Hades was called the god of wealth and all the gems and minerals of the underground were his, it is said the very rock obeyed his commands and the Underworld conformed to his will. Hades is noted mostly for the fear he inspired not only in mortals but in most other gods, the ancient Greeks so feared him they often used the term "Rich One" or "The Generous Host" to make reference to him for fear of inviting his attention upon them. Hades was one of the few gods that knew the Fates personally and was on good enough terms with them to be given access to their list of death and could at his leisure have any given mortal drop over dead. When it was not a murderer's or rapist's time to die but they had committed such crimes that the souls of their dead victims cried out in vengeance Hades would dispatch the Furies to drive them to madness until they were ether killed or committed suicide. Like many death gods Hades slightest touch was said to instantly kill anyone.


 * Necromancy and Ectokinesis: Hades had absolute control over corpses, skeletons and spirits.
 * Subterranean Geokinesis: Hades could control the underground, metals and precious stones.
 * Umbrakinesis: Hades could control darkness.
 * Monster Lordship: Being the God of Underworld, Hades could summon any monster from Tartarus to do his bidding. His favorite monster was the ghost-eating three headed hound, Cerberus, which he considered his pet.
 * Thanatokinesis: Hades could induce death on anyone at anytime. His lieutenant, Thanatos, was completely loyal to Hades and guarded the boundaries between Life or Death.
 * Helm of Terror: Forged by the Elder Cyclopes, the helmet could make Hades completely imperceptible to senses, even to Gods and Titans. It also radiated so much fear, it could kill any lesser being out of insanity.
 * Omniscience: Hades was constantly aware of acts committed by mortals allowing him to keep track of virtues and sins for any given mortal's final judgment. It was said he could see into the very souls of the gods themselves as well.
 * High-Intellect: Hades is made out to be one of the smartest of the gods and certainly the smartest of his siblings. His talent in tricking mortals, knack for ironic punishments, and bureaucrat-like stewardship of the Underworld are testament to this.
 * Limitless Wealth: Since all precious minerals were mined from underground veins it was thought such treasures were Hades' blessings hidden away for those willing to work to find them and he was said to possess infinite amounts of such staples of wealth.
 * Immortality Subversion: In the myth of Asclepius and the introduction to the play about Apollo's sentence as a mortal, Hades is shown to be ready to restore the balance of life and death by dragging a god, Apollo, into the Underworld. Simply put, Hades doesn't need honor the notion of immortality and can forcibly drag an immortal into the Underworld and treat it as he would any mortal soul.

Personality
Hades is most often portrayed as borderline emotionless and stoic. Hades was concerned with laws and order above almost all else and as such had a strong control over his temper with virtually no ego, especially compared to most of his siblings. Hades is nihilistic and seemed to view living mortals as deaths waiting to happen, while this leads to the impression that Hades had no empathy for the living it also meant he saw killing mortals as pointless since each one would die one day anyway. All Olympians were said to be unable to break a promise if sworn to it, but Hades was always honest, concerned mainly with remaining unbiased in light of the scope of his job. Hades' temper was only ever tested when promises to him were endanger of being broken this meant that attempting to withhold his wife from him, invade his realm or undermining his rule of the Underworld were virtually the only things one could do to earn his wrath. Zeus and Poseidon were said to fight like cat and dog, constantly trying to one up the other, but both knew better than to attempt such measures of ego against Hades. Hades is seen as the most intelligent/crafty of his siblings and one of the most intelligent Greek Gods second only to his niece Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Hades is seen as anti-social to most other gods, the exceptions being his wife Persephone and Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods, who supplicated himself to Hades in order to remain on his good side. Hades sent cruel souls to Tartarus and kind ones to Elysium, less as a punishment/reward and more as a sorting issue, viewing violent souls as being unable to function in a peaceful eternity and peaceful souls as being unable to function in a violent one. The souls Hades did directly punish were either mortals who intentionally crossed a god or those who committed suicide. Hades had a strong hatred of suicides, viewing them as mortals too weak willed to live a full-life and attempting to receive eternal peace early, as punishment for killing one-self, Hades refused to see the souls of suicides for one-hundred years, during this time they roamed as shades on the banks of the river Cocytus consumed by their own sorrow and loneliness. Hades had few to no worshipers but rather than objecting to his lack of mortal followers, stories indicate Hades exploited the situation to take advantage of the fear of crossing him. On-the-whole Hades is actually portrayed as one of the most reasonable of the Gods, but as his job was to reap mortal souls the ancient Greeks still viewed him as also being the one god who was specifically planning each of their deaths from the day they were born and thus THE great antagonist of their lives.

Trivia

 * Hades is a central figure though not an outright villain of the myth and play about Orpheus and Eurydice. In the myth Orpheus's music, which is moving enough to make the very rocks literally weep is for the most part unmoving to Hades but as the songs become more and more depressing, causing Hades' entire court to weep, Hades eventually sheds a single tear that comes out as molten lead.
 * Hades is encountered by Heracles in his final labor to bring in Cerberus back to king Eurystheus for Hera, Hera's plan to pit Heracles against Hades backfired when Heracles sat down and asked permission for Cerberus rather than taking him, prompting Hades to give Heracles a sporting chance. After the labor was complete Hades payed a visit to Hera and made it clear there would be consequences, for her directly, if she ever sent anyone to his realm again.
 * Zeus flaunted his authority of the other gods often. Poseidon constantly feuded with other gods for power and Zeus in particular. Hera was usually domineering and vindictive with her power as queen of Olympus. But for all of that the one thing that Zeus, Poseidon, Hera and nearly all the other gods agreed upon in their massive family feuds was not to pick a fight with Hades.
 * Contrary to popular belief Hades was not a satanic figure though with the Underworld being an underground kingdom of souls it is usually associated with Hell and so Hades is often seen as a devil-like figure such as Disney's take on Hades, Hades from Once Upon s Time or Hades in Kid Icarus. Most of these versions are not completely accurate to the original version however, although the Camp Half-Blood version at least is not too far from his "classic" counterpart.
 * Tv Tropes even has its own page on Hades's constant demonization in modern fiction.
 * If looked from a certain angle, Hades is not actually an evil being. With exception of kidnapping Persephone, Hades' actions were all answers to provocations:
 * Asclepius was bringing souls away from the Underworld, and it was Hades' duty to keep the dead souls in there, he had the right to demand punishment for Asclepius' deeds.
 * Sisyphus managed to hold the natural order hostage and it was Hades' duty to release it again.
 * Pirithous attempted to kidnap Hades' wife, and for that he was kept as a prisoner in the Underworld. In some versions of the myth, he isn't actually tortured.
 * Hades' nickname "The Generous Host" is reference to him always having room in the Underworld for one more soul.
 * One of Hades' only groups of frequent worshipers were a small group called the Cult of Elysium, the group made a pilgrimage from Greece to a small island of Eleusis, believed to house a cave that lead to the underwolrd, every year during the winter festivals. The fate of the cult has been lost to legend and folklore but it died out. Scholars have speculated the group eventually became a suicide cult but this conflicts with the theology as Hades was said to despise suicides.
 * Hades was never included among the major Gods of Olympus. Mythologist Morgan J. Roberts states "It may be that the Olympians, all of whom possessed human prejudices and character flaws, were as put off by Hades as were the mortals who feared him." In today's popular culture, many treatments of mythology feature him as a villain who resents his separation from the other Gods and becomes evil as a result.