Pluto abducted the young goddess and dragged her into the Underworld. She was the daughter of Demeter/Ceres and, like her mother, was associated with vegetation. The god of the dead married Persephone, called Proserpina by the Romans.
This is well-illustrated in the story of the god’s marriage, which was adopted into Dis Pater’s mythology by the Romans. Without death, the rebirth of spring would not be possible. Hades/Dis Pater can be literally seen as gods of wealth, therefore. When they were replanted in the spring they were dormant, seemingly dead, but came back to life in the space between the Underworld and the surface. In the fall seeds were harvested from food crops before the plants died in the winter. Decay and dead material fertilized the soil to produce abundant crops that fed both humans and their livestock. The same soil that sent bodies to the Underworld also provided nourishment. Placing bodies in the Earth literally moved them toward the Underworld. The realm of Hades was deep below the surface of the Earth.īurial both symbolically and literally sent the soul to the afterlife. Like many cultures, the Greeks imagined that the land of the dead lay below their own.
Many ancient cultures recognized that new life was not possible without death. This association is not unique to Greece and Rome. The name Plouton or Pluto could refer to the chthonic god for this role in fertility. In classical mythology, the Underworld is intrinsically linked to the concept of growth and rebirth. The mythology of Hades and Dis Pater, however, provides an alternative explanation. By referencing him in terms of something positive, like wealth, the people of Greece and Rome could hope to flatter him or obscure his name so entirely that he paid no attention to them. The traditional interpretation of the death god’s epithet is that it was meant to appease him and disguise references to him. Both cultures used similar names to refer to the god of the Underworld without the risk of invoking him. The popular conception that Pluto was the Roman equivalent of Hades is thus not entirely accurate. Just as often, however, they used Dis Pater, Dis, or Orcus. The Romans sometimes used Pluto to refer to their god, following Greek tradition. This, too, cannot be properly called a name.ĭis Pater translates as “The Father of Wealth.” Like Plouton, this gave a positive title to a god with negative connotations. The other Roman chthonic god was Dis Pater. The first was Orcus who came to be most closely associated with a punitive version of the afterlife. The Romans actually had two gods who fell under the term Pluto. Pluto was a name given to the god of the dead, although it was still not precise. When the Romans adopted this convention they retained the familiar epithet. One of the most common of these was Plouton. Instead, he was often called by an epithet. Saying the name of Hades could make him manifest and draw his attention. Naming the god of death, therefore, carried a great risk. By speaking a thing out loud one could make it manifest. This was because names and words were thought to have great power in the ancient world. It was used as a more positive way to reference the god of the dead. Plouton comes from the Greek word for wealth. The Greek “Plouton” was sometimes used in place of Hades’s name, however. In Rome two gods, Dis Pater and Orcus, shared the domain. In Greek, the ruler of the Underworld was Hades. “Pluto” appears in both Greek and Roman mythology, but it is not actually the name of an Underworld god. If Pluto was not the true name of the god of death in either culture, what was? And what did Pluto’s alternative names have to do with his role as the king of the Underworld? Pluto and the Gods of the Underworld In Rome it applied to not one, but two gods of death. Instead, Pluto was an alternative name, just as Plouton had been. Just as Plouton was an epithet for Hades, Pluto was not properly the name of the Roman Underworld deity. The truth of the god’s identity is more complicated than this, however. While many Greek gods were given Roman names, Pluto retained a more Greek-sounding one. It comes from the Greek Ploutos, which was an alternative name for Hades. Pluto is the name often given to the Roman god of the Underworld.
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