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Hades Daniel Sylvester
What happens when you die? Where do you go? Do your soul and your body say as one? Well if you were an ancient Greek, you believed your soul or ghost went to the land of the dead, also known as the underworld. The underworld is not necessarily heaven nor hell but has very similar aspects.
There is a glorious place known as the Elysian Fields which is where the souls who are found worthy go for their final rest, and an area in the underworld known as Tartarus which as you can imagine is the complete opposite, and where those who have lived an evil and unfaithful existence go. Tartarus is also where the remaining titans from the titan war got banished to.
On the edges of the Underworld is the black shore or the plain of Asphodel, which is known as the Joyless realm of the Ghosts. In original Greek mythology when a soul got taken to The Underworld they would be taken through a large gate if they could pay the fee you would then have to stand judgement before Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, who pass sentence, deciding which of the three parts you go.
The overall ruler of this underworld is the great god Hades. Now hades was a greedy god. He welcomed people into his realm but never let them go. The more people he had dominion over meant that the more power he had. He once set a plague on the town of Thebes because not many people were dying and his numbers weren’t growing.
Now you’re probably wondering how Hades became the ruler of the dead. Well it began when Hades and his two brothers, Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots. Zeus got the longest of the lots; he became the ruler of the skies. Poseidon getting the middle sized lot, got control over the seas. This leaves Hades to get the shortest lot, leading him to get control over the underworld.
There is one story about Hades and the underworld that comes to mind, and as mentioned before, that story is the one of the war of the titans in which Hades played a crucial role. The war on the titans began after Cronus swallowed all his children except Zeus. Well long story short, Zeus and the rest of the Olympians fought against the Titans and won. Hades crucial part was that the Cyclops gave Hades the helmet of invisibility to help destroy the titans for good.
In many religions and beliefs the land of the dead in considered to be in the centre of the earth whereas in the book the Odyssey, it is located at the very western point of the earth. Say you wanted to see a loved one for the last time or find out some information from a deceased person.
To get there you must have a ship and only when landing on black shore must dig a trench. In this trench you must place a sacrificed black lamb and a young goat in respect for the12 gods. Then as you burn the corps of the lamb and the goat in the trench the spirits of the dead will come out and be drawn by the smell of the blood.
You must keep the ghosts away from the blood by drawing your sword and standing over the trench. When you find the person you were looking for, they must drink the blood so they are able to talk back to you.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus meets many brave men and women whom had fought in the war at troy when he visits the land of the dead. In fact, most of book 11 is Odysseus talking to the ghosts of the warriors of troy and asking them questions about how they ended up there and what they had heard of his family and friends. The ghosts then start getting startled and begin casing after Odysseus and his men.
Now I don’t think I would go to the underworld when I die even though it would be a pretty cool place to go. But Hades on the other hand, I would not like to live under his rule. Hades; the true face of evil.
