Visual Legacy
Underworld, Wealth
Hádēs through the eyes of sculptors, painters, and craftsmen across three millennia
Hades — Attic black-figure, c. 550 BCE. The unseen king, rarely depicted, for mortals feared to speak his name.
Hades and Persephone — Attic red-figure, c. 430 BCE. The king and queen of the dead, enthroned in shadows.
Pluto with Cerberus — Roman sculpture from the Villa of Chiragan, Musée Saint-Raymond, Toulouse. Hades as Serapis-Pluto, guardian of the dead, with his three-headed hound.
Cerberus — Attic black-figure, c. 525 BCE. The hound of Hades, three-headed guardian of the threshold.
The Nekyia — Odysseus summons spirits in Hades. The underworld as the Greeks imagined it.
The Rape of Persephone — The moment the underworld gained its queen, and the world gained winter.
