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68 results for: Hades

Dictionary Entries (10 more entries. View all »)
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Cite This Source
Ha·des    Audio Help   [hey-deez] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.Classical Mythology.
a.the underworld inhabited by departed souls.
b.the god ruling the underworld; Pluto.
2.(in the Revised Version of the New Testament) the abode or state of the dead.
3.(often lowercase) hell.
[Origin: 1590–1600]

—Related forms
Ha·de·an    Audio Help   [hey-dee-uhn, hey-dee-uhn] Pronunciation Key, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopedia Articles (56 more entries. View all »)
Columbia Electronic EncyclopediaCite This Source


Hades, in Greek and Roman religion and mythology. 1 The ruler of the underworld: see Pluto. 2 The world of the dead, ruled by Pluto and Persephone, located either underground or in the far west beyond the inhabited regions. It was separated from the land of the living by the rivers Styx [hateful], Lethe [forgetfulness], Acheron [woeful], Phlegethon [fiery], and Cocytus [wailing]. The newly arrived dead were ferried across the Styx by the avaricious old ferryman Charon, whom they paid with the coin that was placed in their mouths when they were buried. Unauthorized spirits who tried to enter or leave Hades were challenged by the fearful dog Cerberus. The honey cake that the Greeks buried with the dead was intended to quiet him. All the dead drank of the river of forgetfulness. The judges of the dead—Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus—assigned to each soul its appropriate abode. The virtuous and the heroic were rewarded in the Elysian fields; wrongdoers were sent to Tartarus; and most wandered as dull shadows among fields of asphodel. 
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.
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