Hades. The Greek god of the nether world, the son of Saturn and Rhea, and the brother of Jupiter and Neptune. He is the same as Pluto. In ordinary life he was usually called Pluto (the giver of wealth), because people did not like to pronounce the dreaded name of Hades. His wife was Persephone (Proserpine), the daughter of Demeter, whom he carried from the upper world. In the division of the world among the three brothers, Hades obtained the abode of the shades, over which he ruled. Of all the gods he was most hated by mortals. The ensign of his power was a staff, with which, like Hermes, he drove the shades into the lower world. He possessed a helmet which rendered the wearer invisible, and which he sometimes lent to both gods and men. The Furies are called his daughters; the nymph Mintho, whom he loved, was metamorphosed by Persephone into the plant called mint; and the nymph Leuce, whom he likewise loved, was changed by him after death into a white poplar. Being the king of the lower world, Pluto is the giver of all the blessings that come from the earth; hence he gives the metals contained in the earth.
