HADES is the Greek name for the underworld and its ruler. The spelling of the name sometimes varies (Aides, Hades, Aïdoneus), but the etymology seems now reasonably clear. Appropriately, it is linked to the root *a-wid- (invisible, unseen): Hades' wolf's cap is worn by the goddess Athena in the Iliad and makes her invisible (5.844–845). Most likely, Hades first denoted a place name and was personified only later.

Hades is a shadowy god in Greece. He has few myths, fewer cults, and is not even represented with certainty on archaic Greek vases. Homer (Iliad 15.187–193) mentions that Hades acquired the underworld through a lottery with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon. The passage is one more example of the increasingly recognized Oriental influence on early Greek literature, since it ultimately derives from the Akkadian epic Atrahasis. There is an obscure allusion in the Iliad (5.395–397) that Hades was wounded by Heracles...