| Acheron | [AK-e-rahn] One of the main rivers of Hades.
|
 |
|
|
| Cerberus | [SER-ber-uhs] The three-headed watchdog of Hades.
|
|
|
|
| Charon | [KA-rohn] Ancient boatman of the Underworld who ferried souls across the River Styx, the symbolic boundary between life and death.
|
|
|
|
| Cocytus | [koh-SYE-tuhs] One of the four main rivers of the Underworld, it is the River of Lamentation (Wailing).
|
|
|
|
| Elysium | [e-LIZ-ih-uhm], or Elysian Fields. A posthumous realm of earthly delights reserved for those especially favored by the gods.
|
|
|
|
| Eurydice | [oo-RIH-dih-see] Wife of Orpheus, whom he tried to retrieve from Hades.
|
|
|
|
| Eurynomos | [oo-RIH-noh-mohs] An underworld demon who devoured the flesh of dead bodies, leaving only the bones.
|
|
|
|
| Furies | (Dirae) Born from Uranus's blood, they were goddesses of blood vengeance; in Aeschylus, they were daughters of Night. They are also called the Erinyes.
|
|
|
|
| Hypnos | A personification of sleep, he was the twin brother of Thanatos (Death).
|
|
|
|
| Ixion | After Zeus had mercifully pardoned him for murder, Ixion treacherously tried to seduce Hera, for which Zeus bound him on an eternally revolving wheel in Tartarus.
|
|
|
|
| Lethe | [LEE-thee] In Hades, the River of Forgetfulness.
|
|
|
|
| Minos | [MYE-nohs] Name of a king—or line of kings—who ruled at Knossos on Crete. The son of Zeus and Europa, Minos married Pasiphae, whose unnatural union with a bull produced the Minotaur.
|
|
|
|
| Morpheus | Son of Hypnos (Sleep), and the god of dreams.
|
|
|
|
| Orpheus | [OR-fee-uhs] The archetypal poet and singer who descended into Hades to rescue his wife, Eurydice, he later suffered sparagmos, after which his lyre, symbol of divine harmony, was transformed into a constellation.
|
|
|
|
| Orphism | A particularly obscure mystery cult in which devotees were initiated into the secrets of moral transfiguration and future immortality.
|
|
|
|
| Pelops | [PEE-lahps] Son of Tantalus (king of Phrygia), he was served by his father to the gods at a banquet. After Demeter—absorbed in her grief for Persephone—took a bite from his shoulder, the gods restored it with an ivory replacement. The Peloponnesian Peninsula is named after him; his sons included Atreus and Thyestes.
|
|
|
|
| Phlegethon | The fiery river of the Underworld that, in a huge waterfall, joined the Cocytus to form the Acheron.
|
|
|
|
| Pirithous | [pye-RITH-oh-uhs] King of the Lapiths who accompanied his friend Theseus into the Underworld to abduct Persephone, for which sacrilege he was condemned to being bound forever in an iron chair.
|
|
|
|
| Plato | A
|
|
|
|
| Pythagoras | Greek philosopher and mathematician (sixth century B.C.) who taught the transmigration of souls, a belief that the immortal soul undergoes a series of incarnations in different bodies, including those of animals and plants.
|
|
|
|
| Rhadamanthus | Son of Zeus and Europa who, with his brother Minos, became a judge of the dead and ruler of Elysium.
|
|
|
|
| Sisyphus | [SIS-ih-fuhs] Founder of Corinth who, for his greed and deceit, was condemned in Tartarus forever to roll a huge stone uphill, from whence it always rolled down again.
|
|
|
|
| Styx | (1) The oldest child of Oceanus and Tethys, she aided Zeus in his battle with the Titans, for which Zeus honored her by making vows made in Styx's name irrevocable even for gods. (2) River in the Underworld marking the boundary between life and death.
|
|
|
|
| Tantalus | Son of Zeus and father of Pelops, whose flesh he served to the Olympians, an act for which he was condemned to eternal torment in Tartarus.
|
|
|
|
| Tartarus | [TAHR-tahr-uhs] The dark abyss beneath Hades' realm where Zeus chained the fallen Titans and where the wicked suffered torment.
|
|
|
|
| Thanatos | [THAN-a-tohs] The personification of Death, he was the twin brother of Hypnos (Sleep).
|
|
|
|
| Theseus | [THEE-see-uhs] Son of Aegeus and legendary king of Athens, he won fame by slaying the Minotaur at Minos's palace on Crete. He fathered Hippolytus by the Amazon Antiope and later married Phaedra, daughter of Minos.
|