The Greek Underworld

By Muzamel Khan and Shabaaz Punjani

Background of the Underworld

• Was a place where souls went after death or afterlife.

• The moment of death, the soul became separated from the corpse turning into the person they were before they died and arrived at the entrance of Hades

• Considered the dark counter path (kingdom of dead to the mighty Mount Olympus (kingdom of gods)

Hades• God of the Underworld• Son of the Titan Cronus and Rhea, had three sisters Demeter, Hestia, and Hera and two brothers

Zeus and Poseidon (the original Six Olympian gods) (Zeus only one not eaten by Cronus)• Married Persephone through trickery• His symbol was his helmet which kept him from being visible• Being the God of the underworld he can control the powers of the afterlife. Being the God of

the Dead and of the Underworld, Has complete control over spirits• Hades is also the God of Wealth and Riches having the ability to turn any material into gold,

silver, diamonds and other precious substances. Not only can he turn items into the minerals above, he also has a magnetic-like pull to his body, making it randomly pull emeralds and such out of the ground.

• One major weakness of Hades was he took much pity on his wife• He is invisible • He helped the gods to victory in the Great War against the titans and Cronus• Was alluded to in Percy Jackson and the Olympians • At times the Underworld is called Hades

Persephone• Persephone was born to Zeus and Demeter but raised by her mother

alone• Hades’s wife, is the Greek goddess of springtime, flowers, youth, and the

queen of the Underworld• The amount of children she has varies from source to source• Persephone had a few different powers. She could easily bring the dead

back to life. She also had the ability to make flowers around her burst into bloom.

• Not able to escape the influence of an over protective mother.• In A Company of Swans the heroine Harriet Morton eats pomegranate

seeds in the hope that will mean she has to remain in Brazil rather than go back to her family home in Cambridge

Demeter• Goddess of Harvest• Demeter is a daughter of Kronos and Rhea and sister of Zeus with

whom she became the mother of Persephone• Also presided over the sanctity of marriage, • She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the

Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon• A weakness of her was that she went to depression quite often • A strength was the she controlled the fertility of Earth • She is identified as the mother goddess • She caused winter to happen when she went into depression due to

her daughter Persephone became missing• Greeks have a festival dedicated to Demeter

The Styx

• River between the Underworld and Earth, often called Hades

• Important rivers of the Underworld are Lethe Alphelus and Eridanos

• Before she was a river she was the goddess of the rivers and could make one invulnerable

• She sided with Zeus in the Great War • In Percy Jackson there is a river that separates Camp

Half- Blood and the Realm of the Dead which is like The Styx

Charon• Boatman of the Underworld• Carries souls of the newly deceased across The Styx And

Archeron to the Underworld• Son of Nyx (goddess of Night) and Erebus • Not a known weakness • Possessed superhuman strength• Led many living people across to the Underworld and

back to Earth including Hercules• Had many different physiques • Has a dwarf planet named after him

Cerberus• is a multi headed (usually three heads) dog or “hellhound”• Guarded entrance of Underworld for people trying to escape• offspring of Echidna, a hybrid half woman and half serpent and

Typhon, a humongous monster the Greek Gods feared• Siblings were Orthus a two headed dog and Chimera, a three headed

monster and Lernaean Hydra• Identified usually as a three headed dog• Hercules, as part of his 12 labors, was told to bring Cerberus to the

King of Eurystheus without using any weapons and he did but was told to return it back to the underworld

• Fed on live meat • Larger than any man and had superhuman strength

Pan

• God of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, also the companion of the nymphs

• His parentage is unclear varying from Zeus to Hermes • Mostly Human with goat feet and goat horns• Name is basis for the word “panic” he scared travelers in

the woods and made them panic and flee• Superhuman strength• His weakness was that he didn’t understand concepts of

pain and suffering

Hades And Persephone

• Married Hades through trickery, he had kidnapped Persephone and Persephone at first couldn’t stand Hades but started to grow on him

• She was supposed to go back to Olympus but she ate six poisoned pomegranates causing her to stay in the Underworld for at least six months

• Persephone, Zeus, and Hades came upon an agreement where Persephone would stay in the Underworld for six months and in Olympus for six months