This made him sibling to Chimaera, the two-headed Orthros, and the Lernaean Hydra, who was later slayed by Heracles. Cerberus was the son of the demon-giant Typhon and the monstrous Echidna. Hades’s closest companion was his three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was the guardian of the underworld. For this, Pirithous was bound to a chair where he slowly lost his memories and sense of self.
He sent his handmaidens, the terrifying Furies, to punish them, and encased their feet in stone so that they could never leave.Įventually, Heracles freed Theseus, but Hades would not let Pirithous go – after all, he had committed the grievous crime of targeting Hades’s own wife.
In Tartarus stopped to rest, and Hades, who could see all of his domain, discovered their plans. While they were there, Helen’s brothers, the Dioscuri, rescued her and brought her back home. He and Theseus descended into the Underworld to steal her away.
Pirithous targeted a more dangerous girl – Persephone, the wife of Hades. The two kidnapped the thirteen-year-old girl and left her with Theseus’s mother to wait until she was old enough to marry. Theseus decided he would have Helen of Troy, the half-human demigoddess who was the most beautiful woman in the world. When he and Theseus both lost their wives, the two friends decided that they would abduct Zeus’s daughter as their new brides. Pirithous was a Greek soldier and a friend of Theseus. Every time he nearly reached the top, the boulder would roll back to the bottom again, simply to drive him mad and punish his hubris. When he did, Hades cursed him to spend eternity rolling a boulder up a hill. Feeling pity, Persephone sent him back to the world of the living.Ī furious Hades sent Hermes to collect Sisyphus once and for all. When Sisyphus once again came to the Underworld, he persuaded the gentle Persephone that his wife had disrespected him. Before he did, though, Sisyphus made a final request of his wife – to throw his naked body in the middle of the public square. Hades and the Olympians cursed Sisyphus that his life would be so miserable he’d want to die. Ares, god of war, freed Thanatos as he missed the bloodshed. This prevented anyone on earth from dying, and Sisyphus escaped. Thanatos obliged in showing him, and Sisyphus tricked him into being chained up instead. When Sisyphus saw Thanatos, he asked how the chains worked. Thanatos, the god of death, was ordered by Zeus and Hades to chain Sisyphus to a rock in Tartarus, the dungeon of the wicked in the Underworld. This broke the sacred xenia, guest right, which angered Zeus in particular. However, he was prone to murder and rape, and often invited travelers and visitors to his castle just to kill them and reestablish his own power. He was the king of Ephyra, now Corinth, and was a great advocate of commerce. Sisyphus was a cruel man despised by the gods. However, to those who challenged the order of his realm, he reacted extremely harshly. He was a god of riches and unseen things as well as the dead, and he sometimes shared these riches. Hades was a relatively philanthropic god in Greek mythology. During the time she was in the Underworld, Demeter caused winter. For the other half, she spent her time in Olympus with her parents. Hermes came down to fetch Persephone, but soon learned that she could only leave for half the year.įrom then on, Persephone ruled for half the year at Hades’s side. If a person ate the food of the Underworld, they were bound to the place forever. First, though, he fed her pomegranate seeds. Zeus ordered that Hades obey, and he complied. Demeter refused to feed the earth until Hades returned Persephone. Helios, the sun god, eventually revealed the truth to her. However, it was secret from Demeter, who searched the world for her daughter and neglected her duties as goddess of the harvest. In the Underworld, he proclaimed his love and made her his bride. One day when she was picking grains, Hades appeared in his black chariot through a cleft in the earth and stole her away. He appealed to Zeus, who granted him permission to abduct Persephone from her garden. Hades fell deeply in love with Persephone, but could not gain the approval of Demeter to take her daughter to the Underworld. While the word ‘αρπαγή’ in Ancient Greek is often translated as ‘rape’, the actual meaning is more like abduction, kidnapping, or even acquisition. Hades’s most discussed myth was how he won his wife, Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
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