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Cerberus

Cerberus
Cerberus
One of the most famous Greek monsters, Cerberus is one of the many monstrous sons of Typhon and Echidna, and serves Hades as the "Watching of Hell". He is sometimes Described as having a horde of serpents instead of a tail, more serpents for his mane, and fierce claws like a lion's. As Hades's watchdog, his duty was both to prevent the living from entering and the dead from leaving. Sometimes he was said to be so fierce that the dead would have to bribe him with a honey-cake in order to pass by. With his three heads, it was said that he never fully slept, and so trying to slip past him was a truly heroic task. Orpheus managed it, by using a lullaby to put Cerberus to sleep, and other legends mention Heroes finding a ways of drugging or stupefying him. The main legend where Cerberus appears as more than an identifying feature of hades is the story of the twelfth labor of Hercules. The king Eurystheus ordered Hercules to descend into the underworld and return Cerberus as his captive. Wisely, Hercules did not attempt to to seize the dog by violence. Instead he underwent purifying rituals, and enlisted hermes's aid so that he could visit Hades peacefully. Once there, he met with hades and Persephone, and politely asked if he could borrow Cerberus. Hades agreed on one condition that Hercules not actually hurt Cerberus in any way. So, with his bare hands, Hercules wrestled with Cerberus until he had the advantage over him, and then began dragging him up into the sunlight. Cerberus was accustomed to the Darkness of the underworld, and panicked furiously once in the upper world. saliva that fell from his three heads poisoned the ground, and caused the first deadly plant, Aconite(or wolfs bane) to grow. Upon seeing Cerberus, Eurystheus was so terrified that he immediately ordered Hercules to return the hound to Hades.                     
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The Minotaur

it all started when Minos's son Androgeos was murdered in Athens and, in his fury over it, king Minos of Crete declared war on Athens. Minos was beloved of the gods and especially his father, Zeus, and the gods cursed Athens with drought and plague's. Seers foretold that the curse of the gods would end if Athens placated Minos and obtained his forgiveness.

king Minos demand was monstrous. every nine years (roughly every 100 lunar cycles, or a "great year" to the ancients) king Minos declared tribute of seven young men and seven young women from Athens as a condition of ending the war. the young men Athenians were taken to Crete, where Minos locked them all in his infamous labyrinth. once inside, it was only a matter of time until the young men and women died ether from starvation, or at the hands of the Minotaur

The Minotaur was a rampaging, uncontrollable monster: half-man and half-bull. He was locked in the labyrinth to keep him from roaming freely over Crete. why didn't the Cretans try to kill the minotaur? because it was, in a twisted way king minos's only surviving son.

The minotaur was a direct result of minos's hubris, which grew immense in the kings later years. Once he claimed he could have anything wanted simply by asking for it, and demanded that a divine bull rise up from the sea. He promised to sacrifice it to Poseidon if it was given to him. The divine bull did appear, but Minos gave in to greed. When the time came for him to sacrifice the finest bull in his herd to Poseidon, Minos merely sacrificed his second-best bull.

Poseidon was outraged, and turned the divine bull into minos's curse. not only did the divine bull rampage over Crete, but minos's wife pasiphae fell in love with the bull. With the help of the brilliant inventor Daedalus, Pasiphae disguised herself as a heifer in order to consummate her affection for the bull. The Minotaur was born nine months later. he was named Asterios, and placed within the room that would become the center of the labyrinth. The maze was built outwards, according to Daedalus's own twisted plans.

The Minotaur met its end at the hands of the Athenian hero Theseus, who willingly went with the third wave of young men and women to be sacrificed. Once there, minos's daughter Ariadne approached and offered to help him kill her half-brother, if in return Theseus would take her away to Athens and marry her. 

Theseus agreed, and so Ariadne gave him an enchanted ball of golden string Daedalus had given to her. The ball was enchanted to help someone find their way to the center and then back again, by turning the corners correctly as it unwound. When Theseus found the Minotaur, he then caught it unaware and sacrificed it to Poseidon, as Ariadne instructed. perhaps the news came to king Minos as a relief.                        
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The Underworld

Hades is one of the three "great gods" who divided all creation between themselves, along with Zeus and Poseidon. It is said that Cronos once flung Hades into the depths of tartarus, and so that it was fated to be his kingdom when the three divine brothers drew lots to see would rule which portion of creation. As the ruler of that dread realm, Hades became the ruler of the grim afterlife, thought of as so great and terrible that some would not refer to him by name. It was thought that doing so called Hades's attention, and let him learn of the affairs of the living world. Instead he was called "the wealthy one" or "reciever of many guests".

Hades left his kingdom so rarely and became so identified with his kingship that, in time, even the underworld itself was simply called Hades. Called the "Zeus of the underworld", Hades's power within his own realm was absolute. The other Olympians rarly dared to go there, save for Hermes, who was allowed to escort the souls of the departed there as part of his role as Psychopompos.

Geographically, the great river styx served to mark as the boundary of Hades kingdom. It flowed directly from Pontus, the ocean himself. Styx's waters were so potent that the gods swore oath upon them, and suffered a host of wracking torments if they dared to break there word. A host of dread rivers that sprang from the styx ran through the underworld: The Phlegethon, a river burning fire, Archeron, the river of woe, Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, and Cocytus, the river of lament. To enter Hades, souls of the dead had to be ferried across by the ferryman Charon. Only those buried with a coin beneath there tongue could afford Charon's fare. those who had no such honors were left on the banks of the styx forever.

Hades was the kingdom of the dead, where all souls that were wicked or merely lacked virtue were forced to remain for eternity. souls were judged by the shades of the three great kings Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aegeus, shortly after crossing the river styx. The virtuous were allowed to pass beyond hades into the joyful elysian fields. Once a person's deceased soul entered Hades, it could never escape save by a special dispention by Hades himself. Those who try to leave are menaced by Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of Hades, who devours any mortal foolish enough to try and pass Hades's gates before his time.
 
 Those who passed into Hades were divided into two groups. Those who merely lacked virtue, but not truly wicked, were allowed to roam freely in the Asphondel Fields, a stand of black poplars and sterile willows sacred to Persephone that stood on the very high edge of the kingdom. There the shades of the dead gathering in great throngs whose countless voices were like the beatings of bats' wings. They had no more ability to do no more harm or good, and only found pleasure in drinking the blood of rams and black bulls sacrificed to Hades. Most gave into despair, or gathered about the field's great ditch, waiting for blood.

Hades devised hellish punishments for the wicked souls that passed into his kingdom. Their time in Hades became an eternity of tortures designed to prevent them from ever forgetting there crimes. perhaps the most famous example of such a sinner is tantalos, who had greedly stolen nectar and ambrosia from the gods. In his afterlife he was tortured by hunger and thirst that could never be quenched. Water flowed up to his lips only to ebb away if he tried to drink, and fruits that grew on trees above his head would lift away as he tried to reach them. Sisyphus, who revealed the secrets of the gods for personal gain, was cursed to forever try to push a boulder up a hillside. At the last moment, the boulder  always rolled back, forcing Sisyphus to begin his task again.

Those who denied hospitality to travelers or struck there parents could expect to be tormented by the Erinyes or Furies, vicious demon-like Goddesses who could pursue scourge both the living and the dead with eternal patience. Sometimes the furies would deliver sinners into Hades themselves, to hasten there punishments. They were Demonic creatures, with coal black bodies, bloodshot eyes, enormous bat-like wings. They carried whips studded with bronze, and always left their mortal victims dying in pain.

Each of the great gods had a particular power that resulted from the nature of the aspect of the world they ruled, and Hade's power was over darkness. His entire realm was cloaked in darkness beneath the earth, invisible to mortal eyes, and could only be accessed by descending through the cracks in the earth after undergoing purifying rituals. Hades himself wore an enchanted helmet that let him cloak himself from all eyes, mortal and immortal, and used this to devastating effect when he saw fit to take the battlefield. The only opponent known to ever wound him was Hercules, who could do so with superlative archery. Perseus actually had to steal Hades's helmet and its power of invisibilty in order to manage his victory over Medusa.                                                  
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The Story of Persephone

Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus she was very beautiful and some gods have tried to woo her but her mother kept her away from the Olympians to live with nature where she would live peacefully. Hades the god of the Underworld suffered a lonely existence as the ruler of the dead below the human world he then saw Persephone and had an attraction to her and he requested that Zeus let Hades take her as his wife. Zeus allowed hades to do so and when Persephone was alone Hades emerged from the underworld in his chariot and carried her away back to the underworld. Then Demeter realized her daughter was missing in her grief the earth turned barren and plant life wilted away and then Helios the god of the sun explained what happened she became furious at Zeus and in anger she said the earth will remain in its horrid state until her daughter was returned. After a while people where starving and have died from famine and Zeus could not bear to she the mortals suffer. so he told Hades to return Persephone but it was to late since Persephone was tricked into eating Pomegranate seeds which are the seeds of the underworld which lets her to stay with Hades for only one season a year (which is three months of our winter season) and afterwords she can return to her mother and when this happened the earth was fertile again but when it was time for Persephone to return to the underworld with her husband hades the Demeter grew sad and the cold winter began and that cycle kept going til this day so in fact this myth explains why we have seasons.
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