Deep underground reigns the inexorable, gloomy brother of Zeus, Hades. His kingdom is full of darkness and horror. The joyful rays of the bright sun never penetrate there. Bottomless abysses lead from the surface of the earth to the sad kingdom of Hades. Dark rivers flow through it. The chilling sacred river Styx flows there, the gods themselves swear by its waters.
Cocytus and Acheron roll their waves there; the souls of the dead resound with their groaning, full of sadness, on their gloomy shores. In the underground kingdom flow the waters of the spring of Lethe, giving oblivion of all earthly things. Across the gloomy fields of the kingdom of Hades, overgrown with pale asphodel flowers, ethereal light shadows of the dead rush. They complain about their joyless life without light and without desires. Their moans are heard quietly, barely perceptible, like the rustling of withered leaves driven by the autumn wind. There is no return for anyone from this kingdom of sadness. The three-headed hellish dog Kerber, on whose neck snakes move with a menacing hiss, guards the exit. The stern, old Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead, will not carry a single soul through the gloomy waters of Acheron back to where the sun of life shines brightly. The souls of the dead in the dark kingdom of Hades are doomed to an eternal, joyless existence.
In this kingdom, to which neither the light, nor the joy, nor the sorrows of earthly life reach, Zeus’s brother, Hades, rules. He sits on a golden throne with his wife Persephone. He is served by the inexorable goddesses of vengeance, Erinyes. Formidable, with whips and snakes, they pursue the criminal; they do not give him a minute of peace and torment him with remorse; You can’t hide from them anywhere, they find their prey everywhere. At the throne of Hades sit the judges of the kingdom of the dead - Minos and Rhadamanthus. Here, at the throne, is the god of death Tanat with a sword in his hands, in a black cloak, with huge black wings. These wings blow with grave cold when Tanat flies to the bed of a dying man to cut off a strand of hair from his head with her sword and tear out his soul. Next to Tanat are the gloomy Kera. On their wings they rush, frantic, across the battlefield. The Kers rejoice as they see the slain heroes fall one after another; With their blood-red lips they fall to the wounds, greedily drink the hot blood of the slain and tear out their souls from the body.
Here, at the throne of Hades, is the beautiful, young god of sleep Hypnos. He silently flies on his wings above the ground with poppy heads in his hands and pours a sleeping pill from the horn. He gently touches people's eyes with his wonderful rod, quietly closes his eyelids and plunges mortals into a sweet sleep. The god Hypnos is mighty; neither mortals, nor gods, nor even the thunderer Zeus himself can resist him: and Hypnos closes his menacing eyes to him and plunges him into deep sleep.
The gods of dreams also rush about in the dark kingdom of Hades. Among them there are gods who give prophetic and joyful dreams, but there are also gods who give terrible, depressing dreams that frighten and torment people. There are gods of false dreams, they mislead a person and often lead him to death.
The kingdom of the inexorable Hades is full of darkness and horror. There the terrible ghost of Empus with donkey legs wanders in the darkness; it, having lured people into a secluded place in the darkness of the night by cunning, drinks all the blood and devours their still trembling bodies. The monstrous Lamia also wanders there; she sneaks into the bedrooms of happy mothers at night and steals their children to drink their blood. The great goddess Hecate rules over all ghosts and monsters. She has three bodies and three heads. On a moonless night she wanders in deep darkness along the roads and at the graves with all her terrible retinue, surrounded by Stygian dogs. She sends horrors and painful dreams to the earth and destroys people. Hecate is called upon as an assistant in witchcraft, but she is also the only assistant against witchcraft for those who honor her and sacrifice dogs to her at the crossroads, where three roads diverge.
The kingdom of Hades is terrible, and people hate it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru