Hades - God of the Underworld.

In Greek mythology, Hades the "unseen", the god of the underworld, was a son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. He had three older sisters Hestia, Demeter and Hera as well as two younger brothers Poseidon and Zeus. Together they accounted for half of the Olympian Gods. Upon reaching adulthood Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings. After their release the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged their parents and uncles for power in Titanomachy, a divine war. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades received weapons from the three Cyclops to help in the war. Zeus received the thunderbolt, Hades the helmet of invisibility and Poseidon the trident. During the night before the first battle Hades put on his helmet and being invisible, stole over to the Titans' camp and destroyed their weapons. The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods. Following their victory Hades and his two brothers Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots for the realms to rule. Zeus drew the earth and the sky, Poseidon's lot were the seas and Hades received the underworld, the unseen realm to which the dead go upon leaving this world.

Charon delivers the dead to Hades' realm of death

Hades is the lord of the dead and ruler of the nether world, which is referred to as the domain of Hades. For a while Hades ruled the underworld together with Persephone, whom he had abducted from the upperworld, but Zeus ordered him to release Persephone back into the care of her mother Demeter. However, before she left he gave her a pomegranate and when she ate of it, this bound her to the underworld forever. Hades sits on a throne made of ebony and carries a scepter. He often wears the helmet, given to him by the Cyclopes which can make him invisible. Hades rules the dead, assisted by various demonic helpers, such as Thanatos, Hypnos, the ferryman Charon and the hound Cerberus. Many heroes from the Greek mythology have descended into the underworld. Although Hades does not allow his subjects to leave his domain, he granted permission on several occasions, such as when Orpheus requested the return of his beloved Eurydice. Hades possesses the riches of the earth and is therefore referred to as "the Rich One". Possibly because as Sophocles writes: the gloomy Hades enriches himself with our sighs and our tears. Of all the gods, Hades is the one who is liked the least and even the gods themselves have an aversion of him. People avoided speaking his name, not to draw his unwanted attention. They sacrificed black sheep, whose blood they let drip into pits, and when they prayed to him, they would bang their hands on the ground.- Amazingly the narcissus and the cypress are sacred to him.

The House of Hades was a dreadful place deep down in the earth and the God was invoked by rapping on the ground. But according to another legend, the realm of Hades was beyond the ocean in the far west, which to the Greeks was always the region of darkness and death, as the east was that of light and life. This is the view of Hades presented in the Odyssey. Besides this gloomy region, we find in another passage of the Odyssey, a picture of Elysium a happy land at the ends of the earth, where rain and snow do not fall, but the cool west wind blows and men live at ease. After Homer this happy land, the abode of the good after death, was known as the Isles of the Blest. But in the oldest Greek mythology, the House of Hades was simply the home of the dead, good and bad alike, who led a dim and shadowy reflection there, of their former life on earth.

Charon returns Persephone to the world above

The myths of the Greek God Hades were few, and the details rather uncontroversial. Such as, the myths of Hades the underworld, were some claim the existence of up to five rivers surrounding Hades. In the Iliad, the river Styx is the only river of the underworld. In the Odyssey it is coupled with Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon, which flow into the chief river Acheron. The river Lethe made the shadows of the underworld forget their former lives. But the river Styx was always the best known and the most sacred. To the Gods, there was no oath more sacred than to swear by the river Styx. Some said the river was so foul that to drink of it brought instant death. Some said it bubbled with fire. River Styx served as a crossroads where the world of the living met the world of the dead and the world of the mortal met the world of the immortal. Greek Mythology Gods, mortals, great heroes and villains made their way across the river Styx. Some crossed the river many times, but for most, it was a one way trip. Among the famous inhabitants on the other side was Cerberus the three headed hound of Hades. He was just one of many monsters of Greek Mythology. Sisyphus who was forever condemned to push a boulder uphill, lived there. As did Tantalus who stands in a pool of water with fruit all around him, yet can never quench his thirst or hunger. In the Elysian fields, you can find all the great Greek Heroes, including Pelops the man who started the Olympic games.

Hades Temple of death

Hades showed mercy only once. Because the music of Orpheus was so hauntingly sad, he allowed Orpheus to bring his wife Eurydice, back to the land of the living as long as she walked behind him and he never tried to look at her face until they got to the surface. Orpheus agreed, but yielding to the temptation to glance backwards, failed and lost Eurydice again, to be reunited with her only after his death. Because of his dark and morbid personality, Hades was not especially liked by either the Gods or the mortals. His character is described as fierce and merciless and of all the Gods, he was by far most hated by mortals. He was not however, an evil God, for although he was stern, cruel and unpitying, he was still just. Hades ruled the underworld and was therefore most often associated with death and was feared by men, but he was not death himself, the actual embodiment of death was Thanatos. Hades Roman equivalent was Pluto.