Hades, in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and of riches and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Eldest son of Cronus and Rhea among the Olympian siblings, he shared rule of the cosmos with Zeus and Poseidon after the Titanomachy, receiving the underworld while they took sky and sea. Greeks often preferred the euphemism Plouton ("the wealthy one") rather than speak his name directly.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Hades" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Birth and the Titanomachy
Hades was the first-born son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, swallowed at birth with his siblings Hestia, Demeter, Hera, and Poseidon until Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge them. In the ten-year Titanomachy the younger gods defeated the Titans; the Cyclopes forged for Hades the helm of invisibility. After victory the three brothers cast lots: Zeus took the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld, while the solid earth remained common ground.
Though often pictured as stern and unyielding, Greek thought also treated him as a just jailor of the dead who seldom left his realm. Living Greeks avoided attracting his attention and rarely swore by his name.
II.Persephone and the underworld
His consort is Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Zeus had already promised her to Hades; Hades abducts her while she gathers flowers at Nysa. Demeter's grief blighted the earth until Hermes persuaded Hades to release her — but because she had eaten underworld food (the pomegranate), she returns to him for part of each year, a myth tied to the seasons.
Visitors such as Orpheus, Heracles, Odysseus, Theseus, and Pirithous enter his house in myth; few leave freely. Assistants under his authority include Charon, the Erinyes, and the three-headed hound Cerberus.
III.Cult and epithets
Because the word Hades frightened many, worshippers used euphemisms, above all Plouton / Pluto, "the rich one," reflecting mineral wealth from below the earth. Other cult titles include Clymenus and Polydegmon ("receiver of many"). Public temples were few; Elis kept a temple opened only once a year, and the Necromanteion at Ephyra was associated with consulting the dead.
In later philosophy and Orphic speculation Hades could be linked with cosmic justice and the soul's fate after death, while Roman religion identified him closely with Dis Pater and Pluto.