Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 88

Pluto/Hades

Pluto was the Greek and Roman god of the underworld.  Do not confuse him with the Christian concept of Satan.  Pluto was not evil, and the afterlife was not divided into Heaven and Hell; everyone went to the same underworld after they died, with the exception of a few heroes chosen by the gods who went to the Elysian Fields.  Pluto ruled the underworld.

Early on, he was called Hades by the Greeks, but later he became known as Pluto, and Hades referred to his realm.  The Romans adopted the name Pluto.

Above, Pluto by Hendrik Goltzius, 1588.

The most well-known myth involving Hades/Pluto was his abduction of the goddess Persephone to be his wife.  Above, The Rape of Proserpina by Vincenzo di Rossi, c. 1565.  Proserpina is the Italian name for Persephone.  Rape refers here to abduction, not sexual rape, although sex undoubtedly followed.

Above is a rear view of that same statue, The Rape of Proserpina.  In Greek myth, after he abducted Persephone, Pluto married her, and they ruled the underworld together.

Here's another statue of The Rape of Proserpina.  This one is by Bernini in 1621.  Note that Pluto is accompanied by his three-headed dog Cerberus.

Cerberus guarded the gates of the underworld – he let you in, but you couldn't go back out again.  One of the mythical Labors of Hercules was to capture Cerberus.  Above, Hercules and Cerberus by Franco de Zurbaran, c. 1634.

Pluto and Cerberus by Maerten van Heemskerck, c. 1555.  It turns out that the name Cerberus comes from the proto-Indo-European word kerberos, meaning spotted.  So, in effect, the fearsome three-headed dog was named Spot.

A sixteenth century print of Pluto holding a bident with Cerberus.  What's a bident?  You've heard of a trident, a three-pronged spear.  Well, a bident is a two-pronged spear.

We end with a modern representation – a 1994 painting of Robert Lucy as Pluto by Sylvia Sleigh.