King Of Underworld [EN]: Chapter 1791

Afterword – Namuwiki 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, p. 34)

Zeus’s most reliable brother and trusted helper.

After the victory in the Titanomachy [the war between the Olympian gods and the Titans], Poseidon constantly challenged Zeus or attempted rebellion, but Hades did not.

Eventually, when Hera, Apollo, and Poseidon rebelled, ambushed the sleeping Zeus, and hid 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 against his brother, who is already the king of the underworld, 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 that conveyed respect and recognition.

5. Appearance

He was considered a handsome man with black hair, black eyes, and an icy face, always dressed in black.

Darkness and night are closely associated with death, and the underworld, where he resides, is perceived as gloomy, which likely influenced 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 plausibility 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 winner and alpha male in that regard).

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 his role.

6. A Benevolent God Who Cherishes Mortals

In Greek mythology, 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 frequently 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, reflecting the great faith humans had in him.

The underworld and the mortal realm were considered 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 had the power and status to defy the three main gods except for the three main gods themselves. And even Zeus, the king of the gods, trusted Hades, so who would dare to stand up to him?

Moreover, in the chaotic Greek mythology where rape and crime are commonplace, he is almost the only god of fairness with a clean slate, leaving little room for criticism.

Furthermore, with the addition of mercy to his aspect of fairness, he demonstrates actions almost comparable to a saint in mythology.

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

He is a respected elder who scolds Poseidon and Zeus when they make mistakes, and his words always carried weight, backed by his great power. It would not be an exaggeration to call him the police of the gods.

(This is exemplified by Dionysus, who tried to take Princess Ariadne from the hero Theseus but willingly backed down to Dike, the goddess of justice, who invoked Hades’s name.)

6. 1. The Perspective of Ancient Greeks.

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No matter how harshly a god, as a personification of a natural phenomenon, treated humans, they believed that if they died and went to the underworld, they would be judged fairly in all matters.

Therefore, examining the stories in mythology closely reveals instances of Hades taking gods who tormented humans 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), or scolding even Zeus, the king of the gods, or Athena, the goddess of wisdom, if they committed wrongdoings.

You can see Hades, holding a position similar to Yama [the god of death] in Eastern traditions, playing an active role.

Hades appears without fail 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 believed that heroes were those who always faced death and did not overcome or fear it.

There is also a remarkable 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, demonstrating that he is truly a god who inspires fanatic devotion.

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

Based on these anecdotes.

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 places that worshiped Hades as their main god included the famous Thebes, as well as the regions of Ethiopia, Argos, and Troy, the main setting of the Achilleid [an epic poem about Achilles].

7. Creations

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

Hades, who was once the personification of the underworld and a hated god, has been increasingly reevaluated over time. In modern times, he is often portrayed with friendly images such as [the conscience of Olympus], [the police of the gods], and [the tired civil servant].

However, the force of the three main gods is undeniable, so 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 where he becomes an agent of Hades, who is angered by the misdeeds of the gods, and punishes 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 sees him persuading the player in a calm tone as a god of mercy and only applying moderate checks. 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. The final phase puts on a transparent helmet and puts pressure on the player.

In the webtoon God of Olympus, he is an assistant to 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 scolds the reckless main character or raises objections to his opinions, showing aspects similar to the original myths.

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 a god of mercy…

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

– For some reason, there is a suspicious closeness with Euros, the god of the east wind, with whom he should have little or no connection.

(It’s curious 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 that 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 civil servant 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 Polideukes 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 jump 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 participate in Hades’s wedding and only shed tears, or that the goddess Aphrodite even mobilized 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 artifact, the Kynee [helmet of invisibility], as a weapon test stand(?). He tested the strength by hitting the Bident [Hades’s 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 many records that not only the dead but even the gods themselves complained to Hades and asked for help.