King of Underworld

Chapter 178: Epilogue – Hades (1)

Hades.

The god of the underworld, wealth, justice, and mercy.

Overview
The god of the underworld in Greek mythology. He is also known by another name, Pluto.

Hades rules over the underworld, a realm filled with the souls of the dead.

Although he does not belong to the Twelve Olympians who sit on the golden thrones of Olympus,

he is one of the Three Major Gods alongside his brothers Zeus and Poseidon.

To ancient Greeks, Hades and Pluto were regarded as the same deity,

but their names signified different aspects of his dominion.

When discussing the underworld and justice, they referred to him as Hades.

When speaking of wealth and mercy, they used the name Pluto.

However, due to the fear surrounding death and the underworld,

official records and state documents frequently used the name Pluto instead of Hades.

Characteristics
Mint symbolizes Hades, referring to the herb peppermint.

According to legend, the plant was created by Menthe, a nymph favored by Hades,

and she offered it to him. As the god of mercy, Hades recognized its utility and spread it among mortals.

Known as “Pluto’s Grace,” mint was used to mask the smell of corpses or as an herb in medicine.

Hades possesses numerous divine aspects.

He is called the god of wealth due to the Cornucopia (Horn of Plenty) treasure he owns.

He also embodies justice and mercy, as he judges the souls of the dead.

Despite his association with the unsettling domain of the underworld,

the worship of Hades has persisted through the ages.

The underworld was considered an isolated space, completely severed from the mortal world.

As its ruler, Hades wielded immense authority.

Even Zeus, the king of all gods, could not interfere in matters of the underworld.

Zeus respected Hades, who managed the underworld and Tartarus, both of which carried a tremendous workload.

Status / Combat Power
The moment the King of the Underworld donned his helmet,

he completely vanished from Typhon’s sight, a being so fast that even Hermes,

the swiftest Olympian, could not evade his gaze.

(Iliad, Pluto’s Translation 18. 267-268.)

“You indeed have the right to stand before the heavens.”

Uranus (Ancient History, Record of the Gigantomachy, 2024, Pluto’s Translation)

“Indeed, in his current form, our elder brother is stronger than Poseidon.”

Zeus (Iliad, 35. 562-563.)

The strongest among the Olympians after Zeus.

To the ancients, the underworld was as fearsome as the uncharted depths of the sea or a lightning strike.

In early epics like Homer’s Iliad, Zeus is described as mightier than all other gods of Olympus.

However, this excludes Poseidon and Hades, the other two Major Gods.

When Poseidon rebelled against Zeus,

he remarked that victory would be certain if Hades joined him.

This implies that if two of the Three Major Gods united, they could surpass Zeus.

Even as the god of the underworld, Hades held such stature,

but as time passed and his divine aspects expanded to include mercy and justice,

his standing grew even higher.

The perception that Hades surpassed Poseidon gained traction.

This is evident in their interactions, where Poseidon often yielded to Hades.

(The god of justice and mercy naturally claimed the moral high ground.

Even Zeus occasionally found himself in difficult situations before Hades.)

Judging by the tales of King Perseus,

Hades, like Zeus, could slightly alter minor fates.

However, he respected predetermined destinies,

even allowing events like the Trojan War initiated by Zeus to unfold.

It seems he could not change destinies with significant global consequences.

During the long Gigantomachy,

when Cronus descended into the body of a Gigas near Thebes,

Hades personally emerged into the mortal realm to stop his father.

This illustrates the ancient belief that death triumphed over time,

and no one could escape it.

To prepare for the Gigantomachy,

Hades briefly confronted Uranus with the help of Nyx, the goddess of night.

When Uranus sent a cosmic wind toward Hades,

he faced it directly, ensuring even his Pegasus mount returned safely to the ground.

Uranus’s comment was remarkable:

“You indeed have the right to stand before the heavens.”

This affirmed Hades’s strength.

In another instance, Charybdis,

Poseidon’s daughter and a sea deity who survived Zeus’s lightning,

attempted to consume humans.

Hades created a black pillar that obliterated everything between the sea and the sky, subtly reprimanding her.

Following this, humans ceased disappearing in whirlpools,

indicating that Charybdis suffered immensely from the attack.

Other tales, like causing the hero Heracles to experience cosmic horror with just a glance

or the unstoppable charge of Hades’s chariot in the Battle of the Plessera Plain,

showcase his immense power.

(It’s unimaginable that one of the Three Major Gods could be weak.)

3.1. Weapons

Hades’s main weapons include the Kynee,

a helmet given to him by the Cyclopes brothers,

the bident, a two-pronged spear,

and the Styx Sword, a gift from the goddess Styx, his consort.

He used the invisibility-granting Kynee during the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy.

Legend states that even Cronus and Typhon could not detect him when he wore it.

The bident, forged by Hephaestus, god of blacksmiths,

could appear in Hades’s hand no matter how far away it was.

Although Hades lamented not having a weapon like Poseidon’s trident or Zeus’s lightning bolt,

he expressed great satisfaction upon receiving the bident.

The Styx Sword was gifted by the goddess Styx after Hades expelled the Titans and became the god of the underworld.

Forged from the waters of the River Styx, the blade was dark and emitted a cold aura.

Later, when Hades proposed to Styx, he transformed the sword into a ring as a token of his love.

4. Relationships with Other Gods
Hades married the goddess Styx, the goddess of the River of Forgetfulness, Lethe, and Persephone, the goddess of spring and seeds.

He had only one concubine, Menthe, the goddess of mint, as previously mentioned.

Even the goddess of the hearth, Hera, did not criticize him for having only three wives and no additional concubines.

Perhaps this was because all three wives genuinely loved Hades and willingly overlooked his harem.

His relationships with the other twelve Olympian gods were somewhat complex.

Although he was respected as a fair and merciful god, mythological accounts reveal that when gods committed wrongdoings, Hades would drag them to the Underworld to work. (A kind of purgatory of labor.)

More than half of the twelve Olympian gods had caused trouble and were subsequently dragged to the Underworld by him.

It is recorded that after such incidents, they displayed considerably more reserved behavior.

This is one of the reasons why he earned the divine aspect of fairness.

The goddess of justice, Dike, personally sought him out to ask him to become the god of fairness.

(From Dike’s perspective, it must have been difficult to point out the wrongdoings of gods stronger than herself, so she sought Hades’ protection.)

Hades fell for Persephone, the goddess of spring and seeds, while patrolling near Mount Etna, where Typhon’s body was pinned, and abducted her.

Some believed that Persephone harbored resentment because she was abducted and fed food of the Underworld.

However, according to the Iliad, it was widely known that anyone who ate the food of the Underworld had to remain there, and there was no god unaware of this fact.

It is claimed that Persephone deliberately ate the pomegranate seeds because she had fallen for Hades, who had saved her from an attack by the Gigantes.

In truth, Hades, who bore the divine aspects of fairness and mercy, and did not even condone the harassment of mortals by other Olympian gods, was unlikely to abduct a goddess.

This argument is more convincing, especially since Hades maintained an amicable relationship with Persephone’s mother, the goddess Demeter.

Thus, it is natural to trust this version of events more.

An unusual point is that Hades did not have a poor relationship with the primordial deities, the Protogenoi.

Aside from Gaia, the Earth Mother, who opposed Olympus, some of the other primordial deities were favorable toward him.

Nyx, the goddess of night, cherished Hades, and Tartarus allowed him to imprison sinners within his domain.

Even Uranus, who had been emasculated and transformed into a goddess, showed a measure of acknowledgment toward Hades for withstanding his attack.

The gods of the Underworld, such as Thanatos, Charon, Moros, Keres, and Morpheus, maintained a relatively equal and friendly relationship with Hades.

Nevertheless, during events like the Gigantomachy, they all sided with Hades.

While Hades reportedly spoke respectfully to older gods like Thanatos, the god of death, Thanatos also accepted Hades’ punishments without protest, suggesting Hades’ leadership as the King of the Underworld was well-regarded.

(In fact, even if all the gods of the Underworld opposed him, they could not match Hades alone, so this outcome was inevitable.)

Additionally, there are records of him maintaining close relationships with the goddess of famine, Limos; the goddess of discord, Eris; and the three sisters of vengeance.

Hades’ character—or rather, his divine character—elevated his stature, even among the gods that others shunned.