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Key Details
Type
RealmMythology
Greek Pantheon
Coordinates
36.38°N, 22.48°E
About This Location
House of Hades
Greek poets send the dead below the earth to a house, not a devil's empire. Homer's Odysseus digs a trench at the world's edge and the shades drink blood to speak (Odyssey 11). Later the geography hardens: judges, rivers, gates, and Hades as a lawful king. Mystery cults promised a better lot; ordinary graves did not. Virgil's Aeneid 6 is the Roman tour. There is no single canonical map, only overlapping itineraries.
Primary Sources
“I drew my sharp sword from my thigh and dug a pit a cubit's length this way and that.”
More from Greek Pantheon
Mount Olympus
MountainThe highest mountain in Greece and the mythological home of the twelve Olympian gods.
Delphi
Sacred SiteThe site of the oracle of Apollo, considered the center of the world (omphalos) by the ancient Greeks.
Tartarus
UnderworldThe deepest abyss of the underworld, a dungeon of torment where the Titans were imprisoned and the wicked punished for eternity.
Elysian Fields
RealmA paradise at the end of the earth where heroes and the virtuous were sent after death to live in eternal bliss.
River Styx
Body Of WaterThe principal river of the underworld, upon which even the gods swore binding oaths. Charon ferried the dead across its dark waters.
Olympia
Sacred SiteThe sanctuary of Zeus and site of the ancient Olympic Games, featuring a colossal statue of Zeus—one of the Seven Wonders.