The name that come to mind when a thought of Greek and Roman death is so notorious that even pre-grade children know and understand it. While it is not to formidable now, it struck fear in the hearts of millions of children in Greek and Roman times, for the god of the Underworld and of wealth is not one to be underestimated. Hades was the god of everything below the world in which humans inhabit.
Hades is not one of your typical, happy go lucky gods that so many of us are used to seeing in the movies. He was an "[ ] unpitying, inexorable, but just; a terrible, but not evil god." (Mythology, Edith Hamilton) But he had his reasons for it.
Hades was the son of Cronus and Rhea. These two gods were some of the first in the universe and were pretty confused if you ask me. Cronus feared that the children would grow up and over throw him, so every time they had a baby, he would eat it. This upset Rhea very much (she went through a lot of trouble to have those kids!) and with her last baby, Zeus, she hid him away immediately after birth. When Cronus came along and demanded to eat the baby, Rhea gave him a stone wrapped like a baby. He swallowed it whole not even thinking twice about it. Years later, Zeus came back and destroyed Cronus, freeing all of Zeus's siblings; one of which was Hades. After a couple of long fights which Zeus led and won, he divided up the universe into different parts. When all was said and done, Hades was left with the short end of the stick. He got to be lord of the dead and god of the Underworld. That's enough to piss anybody off for eternity. .
Through his manipulating ways, Hades obtained one very sought after item: A cap that made him invisible, undetectable to any eye, god or human. This was a very helpful feature in a myth that I will describe later. Speaking of myths, Hades is not a very appealing character to have a story based around. For reasons like his cruelness and treachery, Hades usually has just a small roll in a much larger story.
