Hades, Realm of.
The land of the dead, ruled by the god Hades (Pluto, Dis) and his queen Persephone (Proserpine), was known as the Underworld, Avernus, the Realm or Kingdom of Hades, or simply Hades. Although Homer located this region in the west beyond the stream of Oceanus, later authors placed it underground or at the bottom of great chasms. Descriptions of its geography vary, but typically it was said to contain the Plain of Asphodel (a gray plant), inhabited by ghosts of the dead; Elysium (or the Elysian Fields), where shades of the dead favored by the gods were rewarded with contentment; and Tartarus (or Erebus or Infernal Shades), a place of punishment beneath the Underworld itself. Elysium was also associated with the so-called Islands of the Blessed, and with Leuce (or White Island) in the Black Sea, which was also called the Isle of the Blessed. Other details of Hades’ geography were added by Virgil in his description of Aeneas’s visit to the Underworld, including a neutral zone for infants, suicides, and persons condemned unjustly, and the Fields of Mourning for victims of unrequited love and warriors who fell in battle.
      The Underworld was separated from the land of the living by the river Styx (the river of hate, flowing seven times around the nether world) and the deep, black Acheron (river of woe). Other rivers that ran through the region were Cocytus (river of wailing); Phlegethon (or Pyriphiegethon, river of fire); and according to Latin poets, Lethe (river of forgetfulness or oblivion).
      The gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous dog Cerberus. The offspring of Typhon and Echidna, he has been variously described as having three or fifty heads and a mane or tail of snakes. Orpheus, on his visit to Hades to recover his wife, Eurydice, charmed Cerberus with the music of his lyre and song. For his twelfth and most difficult labor, Heracles captured Cerberus and carried him to earth and back again to Hades. According to Ovid, Medea used the saliva of Cerberus in her poisonous concoctions.
      The aged ferryman Charon transported dead souls across the Styx or Acheron into the Underworld, charging them one coin (the obolus, placed in the mouth at burial) for the journey. Those who had not received proper funeral rites were condemned to wait on the shore for a hundred years before Charon would ferry them across the river. Once across, the dead were assigned an appropriate place in the Underworld by three judges: Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus.
     
      See also Aeneas, in the Underworld; Alcestis; Athamas and Ino; Danaïds; Dioscuri; Furies; Hades [i; god]; Heracles, Labors of, Cerberus; Hermes, General List; Ixion; Minos; Odysseus, in the Underworld; Orpheus, and Eurydice; Persephone; Pirithous; Psyche; Sisyphus; Tantalus; Theseus, General List; Titans and Giants; Tityus.