Ethereal Chronicles

The underworld, also known as Hades, constituted one of the three fundamental realms that the Ancient Greeks believed shaped the entire cosmos.

HADES

Hades was a god of the dead and son to the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Following the defeat of his parents and the other Titans, Hades, along with his brothers Poseidon and Zeus, divided the cosmos into three domains. Zeus oversaw the sky, Poseidon was a ruler of the seas, while Hades presided over the Underworld.

While a fair and just ruler, Hades was not warm of heart, and showed little remorse for those who chose to defy his laws. His vengeance was not to be reckoned with, and anyone who dared attempt to enter or leave his realm without permission, even more so those who foolishly sought to evade Death, were met with harsh consequences.

PERSEPHONE

Hades claimed Persephone as his queen after enticing her to consume six pomegranate seeds, binding her to spend six months of every year by his side in the Underworld. This union gave rise to the seasonal cycle; during Persephone’s absence, her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, fell into depression, allowing the land to wither in the chill of autumn and winter. Upon Persephone’s return, however, nature blossomed with the joy of its queen, bringing forth the renewal of spring and the abundance of summer as mother and daughter were reunited. 

THE FIVE RIVERS OF THE UNDERWORLD

The Underworld consisted of five major rivers, each associated with a particular role and emotion.

THE STYX

The most renowned of the rivers and the entrance to the Underworld, the Styx was the embodiment of hatred, and served as the sacred home of divine oaths made among the gods. It was here that Charon, the ferryman of souls, rowed people who had passed away across the dark waters to pass into the land of the dead. The gates of the Underworld were guarded by a fearsome three headed dog who went by the name Cerberus, barring the dead from leaving and the living from entering. To gain passage, the deceased offered the beast a honey cake, which had been gifted to their bodies as a part of burial rites.

THE ACHERON

The Acheron was a river of misery or pain. In some stories, Charon was depicted ferrying the deceased across the Acheron instead of the Styx.

THE PYRIPHLEGETHON

The river of blazing fire, according to Plato, ran right down to the depths of Tartarus, a domain associated with eternal punishment for the most evil of souls.

THE COCYTUS

The Cocytus was a circular pool of wailing and sorrow, the depths cascading into Tartarus.

THE LETHE

The Lethe was a river of forgetfulness, and eternal dreams. It flowed through the cavern of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and those who passed through found that the murmurs from the cave induced a deep drowsiness they were unable to resist. 

LIFE AFTER DEATH

Souls were sent to one of three places in the Underworld after they died.

TARTARUS

Tartarus, a grim aspect of the Underworld, was an abyss of torment reserved only for the most evil of human beings. Here, punishment knew no end.

Tantalus was an infamous example; after cooking and serving his own children to the gods, Tantalus was condemned to sit beside a pool of water from which he could never quench his thirst, with luscious grapes above him, forever out of his grasp.

Sisyphus, a murdering, tyrannical ruler, also faced an unending sentence. He was tasked with endlessly pushing a boulder to the summit of a hill, only for it to roll back down each time.

ASOPHEL MEADOWS

But the majority of Greeks, those who had lived ordinary lives that were neither notably virtuous nor particularly abhorrent, were brought to the Asophel Meadows to live an afterlife that was not good…or bad. In some stories, the inhabitants of this neutral realm drank from the River Lethe, which resulted in them forgetting their very existence, their very identities, leaving them to an afterlife of oblivion.

ELSYIAN FIELDS

The ideal afterlife, the Elysian Fields, was a place of divine reward for the souls of heroes, or lucky individuals who had been specifically chosen by the gods.