Hades

Aidoneus

King of the Underworld

There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god
of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone.
A fearful hound guards the house in front, pitiless, and he has a
cruel trick. On those who go in he fawns with his tail and both
his ears, but suffers them not to go out back again, but keeps
watch and devours whomsoever he catches going out of the gates of
strong Hades and awful Persephone.
--From Theogony

The Feared Lord of the Underworld

If there is one aspect of life that we can all agree is feared by us rational folk, it is death. Death is a finality that many have trouble dealing with for a great many reasons, whether it is just a matter of fearing the end, or a fear of some awful hell after death, it is one subject that has obsessed humanity for a long time. For Hellenes, there is no consensus on what the afterlife will be, for those who even believe in an after life, and I do not, because in the ancient Hellenic world, there were at least two main views of Hades, the Underworld.

In Homer, the afterlife is pictured as a bleak gray thing. No excitement, no light, nothing but eternal meandering. It was not a place for criminals or evildoers, it was simply the underworld. There was no sense of judgment and reward. No sense of punishment or purgatory. But there was a later, or perhaps coexisting, view of the underworld. A world where a hierarchy of Gods, from Hades and Persephone to Hermes and Hekate served a variety of functions that allowed for the punishment or reward of the dead.

Since I do not believe in an actual afterlife, this is not a God to whom I pray with regard to an afterlife, but strangely enough, Hades is one of my patron Gods. Blessed Aidoneus, as I have become very fond of calling him, has called to me often, and my various attempts at suicide during my life have each taught me something new. I have learned to embrace my darker thoughts rather than attempt to hide or repress them, and in doing so deal with them. I do not fear him, nor am I in a hurry to meet him.

But, the fear of him is still there, a little bit, because like Zeus and Poseidon, Hades is one of the great powers of the cosmos that is a bit too expansive to properly deal with as a mortal man. The Lord of the Underworld is, in a very real way, the lord of that large domain that includes such powerful deities as Hekate, Persephone, and Nyx, who in the end is the mother of the dark realms. In the domain of the Dark Lord there is magic, death, rebirth. In his domain is the wealth of the deep earth and the dangers in acquiring it that have lead many to fall into the grasp of Thanatos (who I see as an angelic figure, not a God.)

The Realm of Death

Hades’ realm, the realm of death, is one that is a necessity to the proper functioning of the universe, and of life. The energy of the universe, and of life, is not infinite. It needs to be recycled, and in many ways that is what the realm of death and entropy does. For further life to come, the old life must die and its energy and matter must once more become part of the natural world. In this sense, this all important deity is essential to you and me, for though it may be frightening to face death, it is with the hope and expectation that it leads to further life for our children, our grand children, and our lines down into the distant future.