Pluto
Role: god · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 17
At Erineus, Pluto descended while carrying off Proserpine; at Lerna, he abducted her and descended to his supposed underground realms.
At Pylos, after Athene supported Hercules in his campaign against the people there, Pluto helped them out of hostility to Hercules. The people of Elis erected a temple to him for being friendly to them and hostile to Hercules, and opened it once a year to signify that people descend to Pluto’s gloomy realm. Earlier accounts say Theseus was once bound by Pluto and liberated by Hercules, and that Tantalus was said to be the son of Zeus or Pluto. Homer’s lines were cited as describing Pluto enduring Hercules’ arrow at Pylos.
Relationship record
Life events
- Pluto descended at Erineus while carrying off Proserpine.(Book 1 · Chapter 38 · 📍 Erineus)
- With: Proserpine
- “where Pluto they say descended, when he carried off Proserpine.”
- Pluto abducted Proserpine and descended to his supposed underground realms.(Book 2 · Chapter 36 · 📍 Lerna)
- With: Proserpine
- “here (so the story goes) Pluto, after the Rape of Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, descended to his supposed underground realms”
- Pluto helped the people of Pylos against Hercules after Athene supported Hercules.(Book 6 · Chapter 25 · 📍 Pylos)
- The people of Elis erected a temple to Pluto because he was friendly to them and hostile to Hercules.(Book 6 · Chapter 25 · 📍 Elis)
- “Anyway the people of Elis erected this temple to Pluto as being friendly to them and hostile to Hercules.”
- The temple of Pluto is opened annually to signify that humans descend to his gloomy realm.(Book 6 · Chapter 25 · 📍 Elis)
- “And once every year they are accustomed to open the temple to indicate, I think, that men once descend to Pluto’s gloomy realm.”
Book 1 · Chapter 17
- with Theseus (Pluto binds Theseus.) “For they say that he was once bound by Pluto until he was liberated by Hercules.”
Book 1 · Chapter 38
- with Proserpine (Pluto carried off Proserpine.) “where Pluto they say descended, when he carried off Proserpine.”
Book 2 · Chapter 22
- child: Tantalus “But the Tantalus who was said to be son of Zeus or Pluto was buried at Sipylus in a very handsome tomb which I have myself seen.”
Book 2 · Chapter 36
- with Proserpine (Pluto is associated with the rape of Proserpine.) “here (so the story goes) Pluto, after the Rape of Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, descended to his supposed underground realms.”
Book 6 · Chapter 25
- enemies with Hercules (Pluto was hostile to Hercules.) “Then it was that Pluto came and helped the people of Pylos out of hostility to Hercules”
- with Homer (Homer's lines are cited as testimony concerning Pluto.) “And they cite as their witness Homer’s lines in the Iliad. ‘Mighty Pluto also endured the swift arrow, when this man, the son of Ægis-bearing Zeus, wounded him at Pylos, and gave him pain among the dead.’”
Book 9 · Chapter 23
- with Proserpine (The passage refers to Pluto's abduction of Proserpine.) “In this Hymn Pluto has several titles, among others the Golden-reined, dearly an allusion to the Rape of Proserpine.”
⭐ Constellation map → · 📖 Read the original → · 🗂 Character index → · 🕰 Chronicle → · 📍 Places →
Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.