![]() ![]() The name Plouton was inherited by the Romans, whose god Pluto possessed the same characteristics as Hades. 490–323 BCE), the god’s name had evolved into Hades.įearful of speaking the name of the god of death, the Greeks took to calling Hades by the alternative euphemistic name Plouton, meaning “wealthy.” This other name presumably reflected the fact that the Greeks’ riches, such as crops and precious metals, came from below the earth. Another common poetic alternative was Aidoneus. The earliest attested form of the name, used in Homeric and Ionic Greek, was Aïdēs. ![]() In antiquity, Hades’ name was generally interpreted as meaning “the unseen” or “the invisible one.” This is a rare case where the original, folk etymology seems to have been correct: modern scholars have traced the name “Hades” to the Proto-Indo-European word * ṇ-uid-, meaning “unseen.” Pronunciation The name had evolved into its more familiar form, Hades (Ἅιδης), by the Classical period (ca. We describe a challenging undertaking as a Herculean task, and speak of somebody who enjoys great success as having the Midas touch.The earliest documented version of the name “Hades” was Aïdēs (Ἀΐδης), used in the Homeric epics the Iliad and the Odyssey (eighth century BCE). So we describe somebody’s weakness as their Achilles heel, or we talk about the dangers of opening up Pandora’s box. The Greek myths are over two thousand years old – and perhaps, in their earliest forms, much older – and yet many stories from Greek mythology, and phrases derived from those stories, are part of our everyday speech. Rather than curiosity or idle, naïve, love-stricken besottedness, the main emotion driving Orpheus was fear and doubt. So, in the last analysis, although his love for his wife played a part, Orpheus’ decision to turn and look back at his wife was born of a fear that if he did look back, his wife wouldn’t be there – and if that were the case, he didn’t want to return to life without her. ![]() And Orpheus’ determination to bring his wife back from the dead was so great that he wanted to make sure he wasn’t leaving the Underworld without her.Īfter all, this is the Underworld we’re talking about: you can’t just pop back if you’ve forgotten something, like the supermarket. In many ways, his doubt is well-placed: the Greek gods and goddesses were not above tricking mankind. Orpheus doubts whether his wife really is behind him on the return journey, and eventually this doubt eats away at him until he cannot resist turning back to check. It’s often said that it’s devotion or love that is Orpheus’ downfall: he’s so desperate to take one quick, besotted glance back at his wife as she follows him out of the Underworld that he turns round and, in doing so, condemns her (back) to death.īut as the summary above reveals, it’s actually a far more understandable emotion that prompts Orpheus’ folly: doubt. Why, when he has successfully negotiated the seemingly impossible – persuading the gods to bring his wife back from the dead – does Orpheus blow it all at the last moment by foolishly going against their instructions and looking back at Eurydice before they are safely back in the world of the living? The Orpheus and Eurydice myth is often slightly simplified when told, and thus it loses some of its force and meaning. Orpheus tried to return down into the Underworld to plead with the gods again, but he found the entrance to Hades barred – this time for good. ![]() So, Eurydice died a second time – this time thanks to her husband. And so he had to watch in horror and despair as Eurydice was taken back down into the Underworld – all because he looked back at her. But in looking back, he had broken the one condition Hades and Persephone had laid down: not to glance back until they were both out of the Underworld. ![]()
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