Okay. SO. This is going to be long
The first point would be that technically, from a culturally appropriate perspective, his domains are feminine. Sounds weird, but ancient Greece had pretty rigid gender roles regarding many things and practices, and the dead and their handling were absolutely of those things. As far as we can tell, funeral rites (which Hades is the god of) were performed exclusively by women, from the preparation of the body to the funeral procession to visiting and maintaining the graves. That’s because it was believed that dead bodies are, just by their presence, polluting, and that women, on account of having wombs, can handle and contain more of that pollution without being in danger. How they reached that conclusion I have no clue, since our evidence of their drug consumption is pretty moderate and you typically need to take something very strong to reach that level of bullshit, but alas. Women were also the ones featured pretty exclusively in necromanic rites (that Hades is, again, a god of, alongside others which I will expand on in a bit) both in mythology and practice, like in the Orphic and Elusynian cults, although the latter are a bit harder to judge as mystery cults were very good at staying mysterious, especially those who practiced taboo themes like, you guessed it, death, rebirth and necromancy.
That majority of women is also noticable in mythology, as if we look at the chthonic gods, perhaps excluding daemons/personifications (like for example Thanatos) we see that the majority of deities responsible for the dead in all their aspects are female, with relatively few exceptions.
Which begs the question of what the fuck Hades, a male god, is doing there, especially considering how unlike most of the other male gods of the dead, like Hermes, he does not have domains outside the dead or the underworld. That’s his whole thing.
And the answer is we don’t really know, because we don’t know where he came from.
The majority of the Greek pantheon can be found mentioned in different Mycenaean sources — the pre-Greek society in the region that ancient Greece saw itself as a successor to, especially in terms of Mythology. We can find the names of most of the Olympian gods in their records, but not Hades. Now, mythology isn’t ever static, and Hades is not the only god whose origins are hard to trace. It’s especially not surprising that we can’t find Hades’ name, because people often avoided saying or even writing his name, so not having a written record doesn’t mean he wasn't there. But what’s interesting is that Perephone, and even Demeter, are there, and were worshiped as chthonic goddesses, under the collective title “mistresses,” with Persephone specifically holding the title mistress, or Despoina.
Or at least, we think it’s Persephone.
Now, on a historical note, pretty much everyone agrees the Despoina is Persephone, and we have evidence for that, including evidence of her name in Mycenaean records. But remember what I said about mystery cults being really good at keeping secrets? Well, the title Despoina was used by those cults, which makes it very difficult for us to know for certain what and whom it means. What I’m getting at is this: we have mentions of Persephone and Demeter by name, no mention of Hades, but an ominous, female title, used for someone who no one wanted to refer to by name, that is undeniably connected to Persephone and Demeter, but somewhat separate from them. Hmmm.
Another evidence that Hades is missing from that pantheon is the role that Poseidon fills — as both a god of the sea and earthquakes, but also of the underworld, with the title Wanax — King — and a joint worship with the Despoinai (Persephone and Demeter). Now, was that because the Mycaeans put much more emphasis on the worship of chthonic deities, which was also why Poseidon filled the role of king of the gods, even though we do have evidance of Zeus’ name? Yes. Could that be because, considering Hades and Poseidon are one after the other in the birth order, when people heard “eldest son of Kronos” they weren’t sure who it referred to at the time, with Poseidon being the known one but another, conflating option of a chthonic god also being recounted? My crack theory says absolutely.
Hades' name, and the lack of its mentions, is evident far outside the Mycaean age, as I’ve already mentioned. He is rarely referred to directly, though it happens enough for us to definitely know his name and epithets. The most common referral to him is when the underworld is referred to as “the house of Hades”.
Except, translation is a funny thing, and rarely linear.
Domos Haidou is the common term for the underworld, and is the one that’s translated into “the House of Hades,” with Domos meaning house and Haidou meaning of Hades. Except, Hades’ name is an adjective, meaning unseen or something close (we don’t have an exact translation on account of not being able to trace his origins). Which isn’t uncommon in many languages, Greek included, and there isn’t something out of the ordinary about that. That being said, an adjective can be applied to any noun. And while Domos can be translated to house, it can just as easily mean ‘place’ or ‘domain’, and with Haidou being perfectly capable of functioning as an adjective, the translation we get is simply “the Unseen Realm/Place”, which is very fitting for the place you cannot see.
So so far, we have a male god with not exactly fitting domains, whose name is hardly mentioned and hard to keep track of (as if it wasn’t there originally…), and with the most common mention of that name not necessarily being that at all. Hmmm again.
My next point is children, or specifically, lack thereof. Listen. I love Makaria, Melinoe and Zagreus as Hades and Persephone’s children, but that is largely unsupported by the sources. Zagreus and Melinoe are largely called Zeus and Persephone’s children (although Zagreus is also sometimes thought of as an earlier, alternative name for Hades, like someone was indecisive), with Hades being referred to as their father as a title more than a relation. Yet again, if we look at it through the eyes of the culture who told those stories, it makes sense — they were born out of wedlock, and are associated with their mother rather than father, so she was likely the one to raise them. So, when their mother got married, they would now belong to her husband’s household, with Hades appropriately referred to as their father, as that’s what he now is by law. Being chthonic themselves, it makes sense for them to be closely associated with him. He’s not the step dad, he’s the dad that stepped up.
If we discard the furies, who are sometimes referred to as Hades’/ Hades and Persephone’s daughters but relatively rarely, with Nyx or Gaia being the usual parents, Makaria is the only of his possible children who is credited to Hades alone — very literally, as there is no source for who her mother is. Generally speaking, it is quite difficult for a man to not know who the mother of his child is, on account of the child having to come from somewhere. Is it possible that the mother is Persephone, and deciding it’s rather obvious it just wasn’t directly mentioned? Sure. Is there another option? Well.
There is also a relatively common conception (haha) that Hades is infertile, on account of being the god of the dead. However, that clashes with Hades also being a god of the earth’s fertility, and being worshiped as such. Now, throughout mythology, we see deities reproducing in various strange ways, including within same sex relationships, like Poseidon and Nereites just popping a child out of nowhere from just how gay they were being. However, while we see it happening in relationships between two men, we don't see the same happening within relationships between two women. Is that largely because of misogyny, female characters being rarely the sole focus of a story and an outdated look on female sexuality? You tell me, I am perhaps less equipped to talk about that on account of being a guy™. But, if we say it’s canon that it cannot happen, and considering Hades, unlike his brothers and nephews, has never taken a male lover that we know of or shown interest in one, if we assume he’s trans would not be able to have a child. As in, he’s only interested in women, but cannot have a child with one, so his infertility is a technical issue and not a biological one, which then wouldn’t interfere with him being a fertility god. Don’t know what that means about my previous point on Makaria, but mythology isn’t consistent and I don’t have to be either.
Lastly but perhaps most importantly is his characterisation and actions. Throughout mythology, the way characters act, gods included, is heavily influenced by their gender. Best showcased in Hesiod's Theogony, there’s a stark difference between how male and female characters advance and which strengths they implore to do so — male characters advance through physical strength and violence, while female characters advance through cunning and mental strength. It is paralleled to the difference between and importance of forethought and afterthought, and the combination of them that Zeus achives by absorbing Metis is the key to his eternal reign (yay, he gets to match gender issues with his big brother).
But Hades doesn’t really fit into that separation. He has a great deal of strength, he is not specifically characterised as a trickster god, and yet he continuously shows either a combination of physical strength and cunning or a stark preference for the latter. He kidnaps Persephone by force, yet tricks her into eating the pomegranate seeds. When Theseus and Piritous show up to and also plan to kidnap Persephone (not cool, he did that first), he has all the reason, ability and justification needed to stop them by force — they are in his domain, what they are planning to do is a crime and he is somewhat less bound by the rules of xenia than for example Zeus — but he doesn’t. Instead, he plays naive, tricks them into sitting down at his dining table and by that activate the trap he set, binding them to their seats with snakes. The test he sets for Orpheus is one of mental strength rather than physical, and it’s one he knows Orpheus will fail. When Heracles asks to borrow Cerberus, his only term is that he’s not allowed to use weapons, forcing Heracles to stop and think on how he should act (before just wrestling one of his heads, which is a more characteristic action but hey, you can’t win them all). His punishment for Sisyphus, who showed a great deal of cunning in tricking him and the other gods, is an eternal demonstration of physical strength, and being remembered for that alone.
Those aren’t typical characteristics for a male character, let alone a god — while heroes have to implore cunning to prevail in their circumstances, gods are rarely in a similar position. He has no real reason to do so, yet he continuously implores less direct and “female” tactics. That is made even more clear when we parallel him to Persephone. First of all, the couple is in the rare position of being equal to each other in power and authority over their realm, which we don’t often see in married couples in mythology. Even Hera, as queen of the gods, is not quite equal to Zeus in power or authority, and has to rely on cunning to get around him when needed. Persephone is the one who’s credited with most of the direct action. She’s the one with scary and dreadful epithets — Dread Persephone and the Iron Queen, while Hades typically gets milder ones relating to his welcoming and hospitality of the dead, she’s the one typically considered the vengeful of the two, she’s the one Odysseus and others assume is sending the spirits of the dead to haunt them and she’s the one most commonly invoked. In fact, Hades is worshiped almost exclusively alongside her, while Persephone also gets her own worship.
It is certainly unusual for the wife to take such precedence over her husband in Greek mythology. Hades is definitely still feared and considered powerful, as the original ruler of the underworld and as, I think, the only one referred to as a sovereign of Tartarus, but he definitely takes a back role compared to his wife and other’s perceptions of them. The usual gendered dynamic is not apparent between them, and in fact it’s almost flipped, as Persephone also takes most of the violent roles, with Hades showing up mostly when, you guessed it, cunning is concerned. So, I’m not saying T4T Hades and Persephone, but I certainly can.
As I’ve already said, this isn’t really my interpretation of mythology, but it’s certainly fun to think about, and can be interesting to explore. Especially considering how Hades, especially in modern media, is characterised as ‘other’ and ostracised from the other gods, which resonates with many queer (and neurodivergent) themes which is definitely apparent in how I write him and means a lot to me. Most importantly, all the love to my trans brothers, ya’ll are awesome and apparently better necromancers than I’ll ever be.
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