PLUTO (Rxoh_rder), more frequently called by the Greeks Hades rAilinr), and by tho Romans °rens and Pis, was the son of Kronos and Rhea, and the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. He was the deity that presided over the region where the departed souls of men were placed: the Zeus of the infernal regions. 'lades, which is also written without an aspirate (Ades), is a word of uncertain etymology. Pluto is supposed to be connected with the Greek word signifying wealth (Txoieres), since the precious metals are found beneath the earth's surface, below which the abode of Hades was generally placed, and he alone was the possessor and the giver of them. The Latin Dis has the same meaning. Orcus is probably connected with the words clirro and arceo, and may signify " bound or restrained." Pluto is represented by the ancient writers as a gloomy deity, inexorable to the prayers of mortals, and hated by the human race above all the gods. (' II.; ix. 159.) Whilst in his own kingdom he was unaware of what passed on earth, or in Olympus ; but he some times ascended to Olympus. His wife was Persephone, called by the Romans Proserpina, whom he carried off whilst she was gathoriug flowers. [Pen SEPHONF..] In the ' Iliad' (ix. 569; xx. GI ; xxiii. 100), and in the Theogony of Hesiod (455, 767), the abode of Hades as has been already stated, to be beneath the earth ; but in the Odyssey' it is placed in the regions of darkness beyond the stream of ocean. (` Od.,' x. 508 ;
xii. Si.) The temples and statues of Pluto appear to have been very few. Pausanias relates (i. 23, § 6), that there was a statue of Pluto in the temple of the Eumenides, on the Areiopagus of Athens ; and the same writer also informs us (v. 20, § 1), that there was a statue of this god in the temple at Olympia. There were also temples sacred to Pluto in Elis, Pyles, and other parts of Greece. Black sheep, a male and a female, were the sacrifices offered to Pluto and Persephone; and the person offering them was obliged to avert his face.
Few representations of Pluto by Greek artists have come down to us. in the statues and busts which are known, be resembles his brothers Zeus and Poseidon ; but the countenance has a gloomier cast, the hair is lower on the forehead, and the drapery heavier. On vases, urns, and sarcophagi, he is more frequently represented carrying off Persephone, or enthroned with Persephone seated beside him.
In later writers, the word Hades also signifies the abode of the dead, as well as the deity who presided over it.