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Hades

The King of the Underworld

Domain: Underworld & Wealth
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Helm of Shadows

Speak with Hades

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Greeks

Region

Greece & the Mediterranean

Period

8th c. BC – 4th c. AD

The Olympian gods were worshipped by the city-states of ancient Greece, from Athens to Sparta, which raised them temples such as the Parthenon. Reigning atop Mount Olympus, they presided over every aspect of life and were celebrated in festivals like the Olympic Games. Homer and Hesiod fixed their myths, which shaped all of Western culture.

The Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus, and the Panathenaea celebrated Athena in Athens. The Eleusinian Mysteries initiated the faithful into the secrets of Demeter and Persephone, while crowds consulted Apollo's oracle at Delphi.

At a glance

Hades is the Greek god of the realm of the dead, linked also to the wealth that comes from the earth under the name Pluto. Son of Cronus and Rhea and brother of Zeus and Poseidon, he received the underworld in the lot cast among the three brothers (Iliad 15.187–193). In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter he carries off Persephone, who becomes his queen, and her mother’s search brings a crisis in the harvests. For the poets he is the lord who does not yield to mortal pleas (Iliad 9.158–159).

14 min read · Reviewed on October 13, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Helm of invisibility, Cerberus, cypress and cornucopia

Family

Parents

Cronus Rhea

Siblings

Hestia Demeter Hera Poseidon Zeus

Hades

Unions

Persephone

Genealogy according to Hesíodo, Teogonia 453–458 e 912–914; Hino Homérico a Deméter 1–3

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Homer, Iliad. translation: A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924. read
Homer, Odyssey. translation: A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1919. read
Homeric Hymn, To Demeter. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Hesiod, Theogony. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Pausanias, Description of Greece, books 1, 2 and 6. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Apollodorus, Library, books 1 and 2. translation: James George Frazer, Loeb, 1921. read
Plato, Cratylus 403a. translation: H. N. Fowler, Loeb, 1926. read
Ovid, Metamorphoses, book 5. translation: Theoi Project. read

Studies

Walter Burkert, Greek Religion. Harvard University Press, 1985.
Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Karl Kerényi, The Gods of the Greeks. Thames & Hudson, 1951.
Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill, 2010.
Theoi Project, Haides. Aaron J. Atsma, 2000–2017. open
Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica, Ploutonion, Eleusis. Hellenic Ministry of Culture, s.d.. open
Wikipedia, Necromanteion of Acheron. Wikimedia Foundation, s.d.. open

Name and epithets

The name Ἅιδης (Hā́idēs) appears as Ἀΐδης in epic and Ἀΐδας in Doric, and also as Aidoneus (Ἀϊδωνεύς), a form used in the opening lines of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

In the ancient sources

Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 7th c. BC. The central account of Persephone’s abduction by Hades with Zeus’s consent, the pomegranate seed, and the settlement that divides the year. Homer, Iliad, 8th c. BC.

The myths

News of the abduction and a mother’s search. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter builds its account around an absence first heard as a cry.

Worship and archaeology

Hades is rarely found in public temples and festivals. At Elis, Pausanias records a precinct and a temple of Hades opened once a year, when only the priest may enter (6.25.2–3).

How the god was depicted

The attributes of Hades recorded by the Theoi Project catalogue are the sceptre (tipped with a bird when he is enthroned as Aidoneus), the key, the cornucopia when he appears as Pluto, and the hound Cerberus at his side…

What scholars debate

The identification of the Necromanteion of Ephyra. Between 1958 and 1964, with a further campaign in 1976–77, the Greek archaeologist Sotirios Dakaris excavated the complex at Ephyra beside the Acheron and identified it…

After antiquity

In Rome, Hades was identified with Pluto and with Dis Pater; the Theoi Project lists Dis and Orcus among the god’s Roman names.

Did you know?

When Odysseus prepares the consultation of the dead, his companions cut the throats of the sacrificial animals over the pit, and the hero prays to mighty Hades and dread Persephone.

Codex relic

Helm of Shadows. An obsidian artifact that grants complete invisibility and projects dread.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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