Tahsin Zaman P.2 4/15/17 HADES According to http://www.ancient.eu/Hades/, Hades was both the name of the ancient Greek god of the underworld (Roman name: Pluto) and the name of the shadowy place below the earth which was considered the final destination for souls of the dead. Perhaps the most feared of the gods, he is described by both Homer and Hesiod as ‘pitiless’, ‘loathsome’, and ‘morotrous’ Hades. Following the overthrow of first the Titans and then the Giants by the Olympian gods, Hades drew lots with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon, to decide which part of the world each would rule. Zeus received the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld. Perhaps a less prominent protagonist in the tales of mythology than the other Olympian gods, Hades, nevertheless, must have been held in …show more content…
According to http://www.ancient.eu/Hades/ , even to speak his name was avoided; instead epithets were used such as Eubuleus (giving good advice). There are also accounts of sacrificial practices made in honor of Hades, carried out at night and where the blood of victims was left to seep down into earth to reach the underworld god. Hades was the only god not to reside on Mount Olympus, dwelling instead in a dark palace beneath the earth. The god also had a helmet made by Hephaistos which rendered the wearer invisible, and it was this helmet that was used by Athena when she fought Ares in Homer’s account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and by Perseus in his quest for the head of Medusa. In mythology, Hades fell in love with Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and abducted her to live with him. When Hermes discovered this, he demanded Persephone be returned to Demeter and it was decided that if she had not eaten any food from Hades, she could return to the upper world. However, Hades tricked the girl into a pomegranate seed and therefore she