Aww, those poor Victorians get blamed for everything. :)
Hades/Pluto has been conflated with the christian Devil/Satan/Lucifer since late antiquity. Itâs very common to turn an old god into a demon so that the new god can take over, and the distinction between ruler of Hades and ruler of Hell is soon lost. This goes on through the Middle Ages, with Hades taking aspects of the Devil and vice versa. In the Divine Comedy, Pluto presides over the 4th Circle of Hell.
The nuance of the original myth resurfaces during the Renaissance and later Romanticism (early Victorians included), with the rediscovery and idealization of all things Greco-Roman. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice becomes wildly popular, and Hades stops looking like a bad copy of Satan. However, heâs still associated with death (duh), and therefore the macabre (âthe Nightâs Plutonian shoreâ and all that).
(Meanwhile, it was another maligned deity that was vilified by Christianity, idealized by classicism, and then sent back to hell by the Victorians: Pan. Arthur Machen wrote âThe Great God Panâ in 1890, identifying him with the Devil himself. Of course, in all likelihood, Pan and similar deities were the reason why the devil got horns and cloven hooves in Christian folklore in the first place.)
But Hades wasnât out of the frying pan yet. In the 20th century, new mass media would draw extensively from Greco-Roman mythology. Unfortunately, its nuances were utterly lost in the Heroes Vs Villains structure. In 1926, the Italian film âMaciste all'infernoâ would feature a very old trope: the Underworld is Hell, and Pluto is the Devil.
In 1969, the hilarious âHercules in New Yorkâ (Schwarzeneggerâs first appearance) features Pluto as one of the villains. The trend continues all the way to Disneyâs âHerculesâ, âXenaâ, and âClash of the Titansâ. Basically, unless itâs an ambitious Orpheus adaptation, whenever Hades appears on film or television, heâs the Bad Guy âą.
Superhero comics had a similarly slanted approach. Marvelâs Pluto is introduced in 1966 as a scheming supervillain who wants to overthrow Zeus. And DCâs Hades in the âJustice Leagueâ TV series is yet again portrayed as the devil, goatee and everything.
The last dishonorable mention goes to Dungeons & Dragons. In âDeities & Demigodsâ, the Greek pantheon gets stats and alignment entries, and Hades is Neutral Evil. D&D settings are traditionally based on the concept of opposing cosmic forces, so poor Hades gets stuck with the Evil part.
âŠAnd thatâs exactly how Greek mythology does NOT work.
Hades, this much maligned chthonic deity, Lord of the Underworld or Persephoneâs (the actual rulerâs) Consort, is depicted carrying a scepter, grains and seeds and flowers, a horn of plenty. Not a bloody pitchfork. He is feared, to the extent that humans fear death, but heâs also admired as a wise and just ruler, respected for preserving the natural order, and worshipped for his fertility aspect.
To understand him we must first understand his realm, and how it was perceived. Hades, the underworld, is nothing like hell. While eternal punishment/reward exists, it is reserved for exceptionally vile or virtuous mythical figures, itâs not the afterlife anyone fears or aspires to. Unlike the Christian Hell, the prospect of Tartarus is never used as a cudgel to scare people into conforming with the divine law.
Hades is where the Shades of the dead reside. Itâs a grim and bleak place, as death is the antithesis of life: no joy, no desire, no memory, no purpose. And no torment, either. Thereâs nothing deliberately mean about it, and itâs the great equalizer. It sucks for Achilles just as it sucks for the lowliest peasant. In fact, Achillesâs shade in the Odyssey declares he would much rather be a humble servant above ground than king of kings among the dead.
Essentially, Hades is a cosmic reminder that this life, here on earth, is all we really have. Itâs an incentive to cherish life, an imperative to embrace it fully and love it passionately. In a strange way, the greatest gift of the god of death is an uncompromising lust for life. Because it ends.
