King Of Underworld [EN]: Chapter 178

Afterword – Namu Wiki Hades (2)

4. Relationship with Zeus

‘Brother, you are already a true king, so you don’t covet the throne of the gods.’

Zeus (Iliad, 34p)

Zeus’s most reliable brother and trusted helper.

After the victory in the Titanomachy [the ten-year war between the Titans and the Olympians], Poseidon constantly tested Zeus or attempted rebellion, but Hades did not.

Eventually, when Hera, Apollo, and Poseidon rebelled, ambushing the sleeping Zeus and hiding his lightning bolt, Hades heard the news from the goddess Thetis and went to Olympus to confront Poseidon.

After this incident, Zeus seems to have firmly trusted his brother Hades.

He granted Hades’ request to release Prometheus, showing that he trusted Hades even in matters related to his own power.

(Of course, the underworld is a place far removed from the mortal realm, so perhaps his vigilance towards his brother, who was already the king of the underworld, had decreased.)

As in the scene from the Iliad mentioned above, Zeus’s way of addressing Hades changed noticeably after the Great Flood.

Unlike before when he called him Hades by name, he began using honorifics, showing respect and recognition.

5. Appearance

He was considered a handsome man with black hair, black eyes, and an all-black outfit, possessing a cold and imposing face.

Darkness and night are associated with black, which is closely tied to death, and the underworld where he resides is perceived as gloomy, hence this description.

Originally, accounts depicted him as a dignified middle-aged man like his brothers Zeus or Poseidon, but over time, he transformed into a beautiful young man.

This may be to enhance the believability of him rejecting the persistent courtship of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love, and having as many as three legitimate wives recognized by Hera, unlike his womanizing brothers (making him a true catch and alpha male).

However, mortals who encountered Hades, such as Orpheus, described feeling terrible fear and a fundamental dread of death rather than admiration for his appearance, which aligns with Hades’s position.

6. A Benevolent God Who Cherishes Mortals

In Greek mythology, ordinary gods often inflict atrocities on humans at will.

The gap between immortals and mortals is so vast that countless gods kill or curse humans for the slightest offense.

The Olympian gods cause the Great Flood to destroy the mortal realm or kill humans for revealing their flaws.

Even Athena, the goddess of wisdom, committed questionable acts several times, as seen in the stories of Arachne and Medusa.

In this chaotic mythology, Hades stands out as almost the only god who is consistently benevolent to humans.

Despite his fearsome persona as the ruler of the underworld, he is revered as a god of mercy and fairness, demonstrating the great faith humans had in him.

The underworld and the mortal realm were thought to be completely separate, but in accordance with his aspects of mercy and fairness, he often appeared in the human world.

Some gods naturally disliked Hades being too benevolent to humans, but there was little they could do.

Except for the Protogenoi [primordial deities], no one has the power and status to defy the three main gods except for the other three main gods. And even Zeus, the king of the gods, trusts Hades, so who would dare to stand up to him?

Even in the chaotic Greek mythology where rape and crime are commonplace, he is almost the only god of fairness with a clean record.

Moreover, with the addition of mercy to the aspect of fairness, he shows actions almost comparable to a saint in mythology.

When making a judgment on King Oedipus, who went mad due to Gaia’s curse and massacred his people, he deliberated with King Minos for several hours. There is also a record that the goddess Lethe comforted him as he agonized over whether he had made the right decision even after making the judgment.

He is a respected elder who scolds Poseidon and Zeus when they make mistakes, and his words always held weight. His own martial power was also great, so he could be called the police of the gods.

(The reason why Dionysus, who tried to take Princess Ariadne from the hero Theseus, willingly backed down to Dike, the goddess of justice who invoked Hades’ name.)

6. 1. The Perspective of Ancient Greeks.

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Even if a god who is the personification of a natural phenomenon treats humans harshly, they believed they could be judged fairly in the underworld after death.

Therefore, if you look closely at the stories in mythology, gods who tormented humans are dragged to the underworld to work (one of the reasons why the image of the underworld has become similar to a civil service office in modern times), and even Zeus, the king of the gods, or Athena, the goddess of wisdom, are scolded for making mistakes.

You can see Hades, who holds the same position as Yama, the King of Hell in Eastern traditions, playing an active role.

Hades is indispensable in the biographies of great heroes such as Cadmus, Perseus, Bellerophon, and Heracles.

At one time, he was worshiped as a god who nurtured heroes. (Perhaps because they thought that heroes were those who always faced death and did not overcome or fear it.)

There is also an amazing record that when the massacre of King Oedipus occurred in Thebes, where his faith first began to spread, none of the priests of the Hades temple fled.

In Greek mythology, the combat power of heroes and humans is vastly different. Even while the mad King Oedipus was cutting down dozens of soldiers and approaching the Hades temple, they continued to pray, showing that he is truly a god who inspires fanatic devotion.

(He even descends directly to the mortal realm to subdue King Oedipus after hearing their prayer!)

Perhaps based on these anecdotes.

The ancient Greeks who believed in Hades feared the name Hades to the end, but conversely, they worshiped the name Pluto to the point of placing it on par with Zeus.

The famous Thebes, as well as the Ethiopian region, Argos, and Troy, the main setting of Achilles’s story, were among the places that worshiped Hades as their main god.

7. Creations

In general, Hades in popular culture is a mix of the cold and strict god of the underworld and the benevolent god who oversees fairness and mercy.

Hades, who was the personification of the underworld and a hated god, has been increasingly re-evaluated over time, and in modern times, he is often portrayed with friendly images such as [The Conscience of Olympus], [The Police of the Gods], and [The Tired Public Official].

However, the force of the three main gods does not diminish, and he is active in many secondary creations.

In games, he summons Cerberus, the divine beast of the underworld, or appears as the final boss who raises the dead. There are also novels in which he becomes Hades’s agent, angered by the misdeeds of the gods, and challenges the Olympian gods.

He appears with a frequency comparable to Zeus, the king of Olympus.

In the 6th episode of Rebellion of the Dead, he boasts an incredibly high difficulty as the final boss.

The first phase persuades the player in a calm tone as a god of mercy and only applies moderate checks, but the second phase imposes debuffs proportional to the monsters the player has killed so far as a god of fairness. The third phase manifests his true form wrapped in black darkness and boasts bizarre patterns as the king of the underworld wielding mighty divine power, and the final phase puts on a transparent helmet and puts pressure on the player.

In the webtoon God of Olympus, he is an ally of the main character Zeus, a black-haired god who shows friendly actions such as detecting Poseidon’s rebellion in advance and preparing an ambush in Olympus.

However, he also shows aspects similar to the original story, such as scolding the reckless main character or raising objections to his opinions.

8. Other

– He is a principled person who does not tolerate things that violate his jurisdiction or rules, but thanks to the addition of the aspect of the god of mercy…

There are also exceptions, such as Orpheus, who saved his wife from the underworld and became the god of music, and Heracles, who was ordered to bathe in the River Styx. (In this respect, it is well revealed that even Hades, the personification of the underworld, and the gods of Greek mythology are ultimately human.)

– For some reason, there is a suspicious description that he is close to Euros, the god of the east wind, who should have little or no connection with him.

(I wonder why they are so close, even though Euros wouldn’t have helped Hades with his love life.)

– There are so many anecdotes about dragging gods who have done wrong to the underworld and making them work, so the underworld where he is located is often interpreted as [the most avoided workplace in the divine realm] or [a place of exile and forced labor for the gods]. In creations that reflect such interpretations, Hades appears as a public official who is very tired and overwhelmed with work.

– He is a god who is friendly to heroes, but he is also a god who actively punishes them if they try to massacre innocent humans. The scene where he scolds and sends back Polydeuces and Nestor, who almost captured Troy, is one of the few gag scenes in the Trojan War. (The scene where the heroes who realized that the person blocking them was Hades possessed by a human jumped off the walls is the highlight.)

– It seems that he has a very handsome appearance, judging from the fact that Alekto, one of the three goddesses of revenge, did not attend Hades’ wedding and only shed tears, or that the goddess Aphrodite used Kestos Himas [Aphrodite’s magical girdle] to seduce him but failed. (In the first place, he is a male god with all the power, wealth, status, and personality…)

– Strangely, there were cases where he used his divine object, the Cyneē [helmet of invisibility], as a weapon test stand(?). He tested the strength by hitting the Bident [Hades’ two-pronged spear] or Styx sword against the transparent helmet…

– He was said to have a very high reputation as a god who listened to unfair things and judged fairly. There are several records that not only the dead but also the gods themselves complained to Hades and asked for help.