Hades

Hades, son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, belongs to the first Olympian generation. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Cronus, fearing he would be dethroned by his offspring, swallowed his children at birth: thus he took down Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon, while only Zeus, the youngest, was saved by a stratagem of Rhea. When Zeus grew up he forced Cronus to give back his siblings, who came out in the reverse of the order they went in.

Which of the three is the eldest is a question the sources do not settle, and it is better said than silently decided. By birth Hades comes before Zeus, and so Hesiod presents him. But in the Iliad it is Zeus himself who declares he is the elder, and Iris reminds Poseidon that the Erinyes always attend the older brother. The ancient reconciliation is that emerging from Cronus's belly counts as a second birth, and in it Zeus came first. Either way, seniority gave Hades no advantage in the division.

Alongside his brothers he fought ten years in the Titanomachy; the Cyclopes, grateful for their release, forged him a helm that conferred invisibility. With the Titans defeated, the three brothers drew lots to share out the cosmos: the sky fell to Zeus, the sea to Poseidon and the underworld to Hades, while earth and Olympus remained common ground. That it was a lot and not a punishment matters: Hades was not banished underground, it fell to him. So his eternal lordship over the realm of the dead was established.

From his palace in the shadowy depths, Hades rules the underworld that bears his name, the abode of all the souls of the dead. The realm is bounded by infernal rivers, among them the Styx and the Acheron, across which the ferryman Charon carries the shades in exchange for an obol. At its gates watches Cerberus, the many-headed dog that prevents the dead from leaving and the living from entering. The judges Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus examine each soul and determine its fate: the just reach the Elysian Fields, the majority wander the Meadow of Asphodel, and the impious are cast into Tartarus. Hades is not a god of evil, but a severe and inflexible sovereign who ensures that no shade escapes and no living being transgresses his domains. Also called Pluto (the Rich One), he presides over the riches hidden beneath the earth, for from his bosom spring the metals and the fertility of the harvests.

The central episode of Hades' myth is the abduction of Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. With Zeus' consent, Hades seized her while she gathered flowers and led her to the underworld to make her his wife and queen. Demeter, distraught, abandoned her functions and the earth became barren, until Zeus ordered the young woman's return. But Persephone had tasted some pomegranate seeds, food of the underworld, which compelled her to return to Hades for part of the year; in this cycle the Greeks saw the origin of the seasons. Hades is the brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. Unlike the other Olympians, he had scarcely any offspring: tradition attributes to him Macaria and, in the Orphic sources, Melinoe. He seldom leaves his realm, and his solitary character contrasts with the bustle of Olympus, reinforcing his image as the impartial and inescapable guardian of death.