Hades
Also known as: Aidôneus / Pluto · Family: Underworld · Role: god of the underworld · First appears: Sophocles, The Trachinian Maidens — Scene 5
Hades, also known as Aidôneus and Pluto, is the god of the underworld. In Sophocles, he is Zeus’s brother, while Oedipus looks to hide the end of his disastrous life with him: “I go To hide the close of my disastrous life With Hades.”
In Euripides’ Alcestis, Hades is opposed to Alcestis, pulling her toward the hall of the dead, and Admetus says that death has robbed him of a hostage and delivered her to Pluto. In Scene 5, Heracles plans to descend to the sunless mansions of Cora and her king if he cannot capture Thanatos at the tomb, hoping to bring back Alcestis: “I will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and her king, and will prefer my request; and I trust that I shall bring up Alcestis”. Elsewhere, Iphigenia mourns a brother sent to Hades, while Menelaus calls on Pluto, who has received the dead fallen in Helen’s cause.
Relationship record
Life events
- Heracles plans to descend to the underworld if he cannot capture Thanatos at the tomb.(Euripides, Alcestis — Scene 5)
Sophocles, The Trachinian Maidens — Scene 5
- siblings with Zeus “Sweet Hades, with swift death, Brother of Zeus, release my suffering breath!”
Sophocles, Oedipus At Colonos — Scene 8
- with Oedipus (Oedipus goes to dwell with Hades in the realm of the dead.) “I go To hide the close of my disastrous life With Hades.”
Euripides, Alcestis — Scene 2
- enemies with Alcestis “He pulls me, some one pulls me--do you not see?--to the hall of the dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black eyebrows--What wilt thou do?--let me go--what a journey am I most wretched going!”
- with Alcestis (Hades, printed here as Pluto, is portrayed as drawing Alcestis toward the hall of the dead.) “He pulls me, some one pulls me--do you not see?--to the hall of the dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black eyebrows--What wilt thou do?--let me go--what a journey am I most wretched going!”
Euripides, Alcestis — Scene 5
- with Cora (Hades is identified as Cora's king.) “I will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and her king, and will prefer my request;”
Euripides, Alcestis — Scene 6
- with Admetus (Hades is presented as the recipient of the dead.) “of such a hostage has death robbed me, and delivered up to Pluto”
- with Alcestis (Alcestis has been delivered to Hades among the dead.) “of such a hostage has death robbed me, and delivered up to Pluto.”
Euripides, Iphigenia In Tauris — Scene 2
- with Iphigenia (interaction) “Alas! alas! for the toils in Argos! Alas! thou deity, who hast now robbed me of my only brother, sending him to Hades, to whom I am about to pour forth on the earth's surface these libations and this bowl for the departed”
Euripides, Helen — Scene 6
- with Menelaus (Hades has received the corpses of those killed by Menelaus in Helen’s cause.) “O Pluto, to my aid, who hast received Full many a corse, which fell in Helen’s cause Beneath my sword, and still retain’st the prize”
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Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.