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1st century sculpture of Pluto in the Getty Villa. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto (Greek: Πλούτων, Ploutōn) was the ruler of the Greek underworld.The earlier name for the god was Hades, which became more common as the name of the underworld itself.
Hades (/ ˈ h eɪ d iː z /; Ancient Greek: ᾍδης, romanized: Hā́idēs, Attic Greek: [háːi̯dεːs], later [háːdεːs]), in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. [2]
Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Etruscan and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself. Eventually, he was conflated with Dis Pater and Pluto. A temple to Orcus may once have existed on the Palatine Hill in Rome
In some Greek sources Tartarus is another name for the underworld (serving as a metonym for Hades), while in others it is a completely distinct realm separate from the underworld. Hesiod most famously describes Tartarus as being as far beneath the underworld as the earth is beneath the sky. [45]
In a number of Greek cosmogonies, Erebus is described as one of the first beings to exist. In Hesiod's Theogony (late 8th century BC), which the Greeks considered the "standard" account of the origin of the gods, [5] he is the offspring of Chaos, alongside Nyx (Night). [6]
A relief from grave of Lysimachides, 320 BC. Two men and two women sit together as Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld, approaches to take him to the land of the dead.. In Greek mythology, deities referred to as chthonic (/ ˈ θ ɒ n ɪ k /) or chthonian (/ ˈ θ oʊ n i ə n /) [a] were gods or spirits who inhabited the underworld or existed in or under the earth, and were typically ...
In being conflated with Pluto, Dis Pater took on some of the latter's mythological attributes, being one of the three sons of Saturn (Greek Cronus) and Ops (Greek Rhea), along with Jupiter (Greek Zeus) and Neptune (Greek Poseidon). He ruled the underworld and the dead beside his wife, Proserpina (Greek Persephone). [3]
Hesiod's Theogony, (c. 700 BC) which could be considered the "standard" creation myth of Greek mythology, [1] tells the story of the genesis of the gods. After invoking the Muses (II.1–116), Hesiod says the world began with the spontaneous generation of four beings: first arose Chaos (Chasm); then came Gaia (the Earth), "the ever-sure foundation of all"; "dim" Tartarus (the Underworld), in ...