Underworld Gods

While Hades is the residing god and King of the Underworld, there are many other gods who often accompany and work alongside him. Who are these gods and what is their role in the Underworld?

List of Gods and Goddess in the Underworld:

• The Judges:

- Aeacus – A judge of the dead who was originally a King of the island of Aegina who obtained his position as an Underworld judge as a reward from the gods.

- Minos – A judge of the dead who was originally a King of Crete, who was awarded his position for the establishment of laws on Earth.

- Rhadamanthys – A judge of the dead who is also the King of the Elysian Fields. He was a famously just lawmaker who was appointed this position as a reward after death.

• Arae - The Underworld daemon of curses.

• Ceuthonymus - A mysterious underworld daemon. He is the father of Hades’ cattleman Menoetes.

• Charon - An Underworld daemon who ferries the souls of the dead across the streams of Acheron and the Styx into the Underworld. His fee is a single coin which needs to be placed beneath the tongue of the dead.

• Kronos - The old King of the Titans. He was appointed King of the Islands of the Blessed, within the Elysian Fields, by Zeus after his release him from the prison-house of Tartarus.

• Empusa - A monstrous underworld daemon with flaming hair, the leg of a goat and a leg of bronze. She was the bogey-monster in Greek fable.

• Epiales - The Underworld daemon of nightmares. He is related to the Oneiri or dream-spirits.

• Erebus - The primeval God of Darkness. He is an elemental, protogenoi god existing as the substance of darkness, rather than a man-shaped god. His mists encircled the Underworld and fills the hollows of the Earth.

• The Erinyes - The three Goddesses of Vengeance and Retribution. They are called forth from the Underworld to inflict suffering and madness upon evil-doers, to bring drought and famine to nations, and punish the souls of the damned.

• Hecate - The Goddess of Magic, Necromancy and the Haunting Ghosts of the Dead. Hecate is the minister of Persephone.

• Hermes - The guide of the dead who leads the ghosts to their final resting place in the Underworld.

• Hypnos - The God of Sleep who dwells in a silent realm on the borders of the Underworld. He leaves the Underworld nightly with his mother Nyx the Night.

• Macaria - The Goddess of Blessed Death. She is a daughter of Hades.

• Menoetes - An Underworld daemon who herds the black-skinned cattle of Hades. He was wrestled by Heracles who cracked his ribs.

• Minthe - An Underworld nymph loved by Hades. She was turned to dust by Persephone and her remains were turned into a mint plant by Hades.

• The Moirae - The three Goddesses of Fate. They are ministers that attend to Hades.

• Nyx - The primeval Goddess of the Night. She leaves the Underworld trailing her dark mists across the sky every night.

• Tartarus - The primeval God of the dark, stormy pit which lay beneath the foundations of the Earth and beneath even the realm of the Underworld. Tartarus himself is the pit, rather than a man-shaped god. His realm is the prison of the ancient Titan gods, sealed on all sides with walls of bronze, and guarded by the hundred-handed Hekatoncheires.

• Thanatos - The winged daemon of death. He is the main minister of Hades.