The Underworld where all the dead have to live (?) Is the kingdom attributed by Zeus to Hades. The dark, taciturn and quite frightening god lives in his kingdom with his wife Persephone when she is not staying with her mother, the goddess Demeter.
It is an invisible kingdom only accessible to the dead.
At any entrance of the Underworld some terrifying monsters were on guard : the most famous is Cerberus , also called the Hound of Hades, a monstrous black dog with 3 heads, a serpent is his tail, and snakes are slithering from the different parts of his body.
There was also the horrific Lernaean Hydra , guarding the entrance by the Lernaean lake.
These terrible creatures prevent any living to get into the kingdom of Hades but more importantly prevent any escape from the dead.
The Ancient Greeks believed that at the time of death the corpse freed the soul which would keep the shadow of the person. This soul wrapped in the shadow would be transported to the entrance of the Underworld where everyone would be sent to the appropriate place according to their respective merits or offences towards the gods.
In front of the main entrance to the Underworld lived all the related gods, mostly those who came late at the time when Zeus was handing responsibilities, only the hardships were left :
- Alger (Agony)
- Aporia (Need)
- Curae (Anxiousness )
- Eris ( Discord)
- Geras ( Old Age)
- Hypnos ( Sleep)
- Limos ( Hunger)
- Nosoi (Sicknesses )
- Penthos (Grief))
- Phobos (Fear)
- Polemos ( War)
- And finally Thanatos (Death itself ).
Once the dead souls were carried by one of these gods or goddesses of darkness and misery, or by Hermes for the case of glorious warriors they were then gathered inside the Underworld.
But they still needed to cross one of the five rivers of the Underworld, each associated with an emotion :
—the Styx (the river of Hatred)
-the Acheron (the river of Pain)
-the Lethe (the river of Oblivion)
-the Phlegethon (the river of fire)
-the Cocytus (the river of wailing).
Just a precision: the Oceanus was the river that encircled the whole world, the living living and the underworld, not a crossing river inside the Underworld.
Not every dead was allowed to cross the river. Only the dead who had a coin placed under their tongue or on their closed eyes were able to pay the sad, unpleasant and filthy ferryman Charon and were then allowed to cross.
This explains why the Ancient Greeks were terrified by the idea of not being buried properly. It was the most terrible punishment as without a proper burial of your mortal body and the appropriate rituals to the gods there was no way to cross the river. Therefore your soul would be condemned for eternity to scream of despair and drowned continuously in the river Styx ( Hatred) or in the Acheron ( Pain).
Once the dead had paid their fare to the terrifying Charon who was said to have fiery eyes , they boarded the ferry to cross the river where the lost souls were desperately screaming.
On the other side of the river, Cerberus, the hound of Hades, a monstrous black dog with 3 heads was standing guard.
Behind Cerberus, the 3 Judges of the Underworld, Monos, Rhadamanthus and Eaque were there to decide where the souls of the dead were to go depending on how they used the lives that were lend to them.
The Underworld was divided into different sections :
The Asphodel Meadows :
It was the most populated place as it was where ordinary souls who did not commit any crime or outrage towards the gods would be sent. These souls had to walk aimlessly as in the life given they did not achieve any success.
The Mourning Fields :
It was the place where the souls that had wasted their lives on unrequited love, on repeated failures were condemned as it was considered an outrage to the gods to waste the life that had been given.
They had to work hard for eternity.
The Elysian Fields :
It was the place for the nobles, the heroic warriors, the heroes, the pures, the people who had made a significant contribution to the society.
It was the blissful place for “the happy few”.
The Isles of the Blessed
It was the VIP ( Very Important People) section within The Elysian Fields, reserved to the true heroes, blessed by the gods.
Tartarus :
The doomed place of darkness and torment, initially it was the void where The Olympian gods could imprison their ennemis . The most famous prisoner of Tartarus was Cronus .
Then it became the terrible prison for all those who had outraged the gods.
The Underworld is mostly a quiet, peaceful place ruled by the cold Hades. Only the wicked are punished and the few, happy few live a pleasant after-life. For the very large majority it is a place of shadows. It is not the sinister painful hell depicted by other religions.