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Myths about the Roman God Pluto
He fixed his residence in
Spain, and lived in Iberia, near the Pyrrenaean mountains:
Spain being a fertile country, and abounding in minerals and
mines, Pluto was esteemed the god of wealth; for it must be
here observed, that the poets confound Pluto, god of hell,
with Plutus, god of riches, though they were distinct
deities, and always so considered by the ancients.
Pluto's regions being supposed to lie under ground; and as
he was the first who taught men to bury their dead, it was
thence inferred that he was king of the infernal regions,
whence sprung a belief, that as all souls descended to him,
so when they were in his possession, he bound them with
inevitable chains, and delivered them to be tried by judges,
after which he dispensed rewards and punishments according
to their several deserts. Pluto was therefore called
the infernal Jupiter, and oblations were made to him by the
living, for the souls of their friends departed.
Although Pluto was brother of Jupiter, yet none of the
goddesses would condescend to marry him, owing to the
deformity of his person, joined to the darkness of his
mansions. Enraged at this reluctance in the goddesses, and
mortified at his want of issue, Pluto ascended his chariot,
and drove to Sicily, where chancing to discover Proserpine
with her companions gathering flowers in a valley of Enna,
near mount Aetna, the grisly god, struck with her charms,
instantly seized her, and forcing her into his chariot, went
rapidly off to the river Chemarus, through which he opened
himself a passage to the realms of night. Orpheus says, this
descent was made through the Cecropian cave in Attica, not
far from Eleusis.
His whole domains are washed with vast and rapid rivers,
whose peculiar qualities strike horror into mortals. Cocytus
falls with an impetuous roaring; Phlegethon rages with a
torrent of flames; the Acharusian fen is dreadful for its
stench and filth: nor does Charon, the ferryman, who wafts
souls over, occasion any less horror; Cerberus, the
triple-headed dog, stands ready with open mouths to receive
them; and the Furies shake at them their serpentine locks.
Thus far the common fable; but the following seems the true
foundation of the story which has been so much disguised;
Pluto having retired into Spain, applied himself to the
working of the mines of silver and gold, which in that
country, were very common, especially on the side of Cadiz,
where he fixed his abode. Boetica, his residence, was that
province now called Andalusia, and the river Boetis, now
Guadalquiver, gave that name to it. This river formed of
old, at its mouth, a small island, called Tartessus, which
was the Tartessus of the ancients, and whence Tartarus was
formed.
It may be remarked, that though Spain was not now fertile in
mines, yet the ancients speak of it as a country where they
abounded. Posidonius says, that its mountains and hills were
almost all mountains of gold; Arienus, that near Tartessus
was a mountain of silver; and Aristotle, that the first
Phoenicians who landed there, found such quantities of gold
and of silver, that they made anchors for their ships of
those precious metals. This, doubtless, is what determined
Pluto, who was ingenius in such operations, to fix
himself near to Tartessus; and this making him pass also for
a wealthy prince, procured for him the name of Pluto,
instead of that of Agelestus.
The situation of Pluto's kingdom, which was low in respect
to Greece, occasioned him to be looked on as the god of
hell; and as he continually employed laborers for his mines,
who chiefly resided in the bowels of the earth, and there
commonly died, Pluto was reputed the king of the dead. The
ocean, likewise, upon whose coasts he reigned, was supposed
to be covered with darkness. These circumstances united,
appear to have been the foundation of the fables afterwards
invented concerning Pluto and his realms of night. It is
probable, for example, that the famous Tartarus, the place
so noted in the empire of this god, comes from Tartessus,
near Cadiz: the river Lethe not unlikely from the Guada-Lethe,
which flows over against that city; and the lake Avernus, or
the Acheronian fen, from the word Aharona, importing, at the
extremities, a name given to that lake, which is near the
ocean.
Pluto was extremely revered both by the Greeks and Romans.
He had a magnificent temple at Pylos. Near the river
Corellus, in Boeotia, he had also an altar, for some mystical
reason, in common with Pallas. His chief festival was in
February, and called Charistia, because their oblations were
made for the dead. Black bulls were the victims offered up,
and the ceremonies were performed in the night, it not being
lawful to sacrifice to him in the day time, on account of
his aversion to the light. The cypress tree was sacred to
Pluto, boughs of which were carried at funerals.
He is usually represented in an ebony chariot, drawn by his
four black horses, Orphnaeus, Aethon, Nycteus, and Alastor. As
god of the dead, keys were the ensigns of his authority,
because there is no possibility of returning when the gates
of his palace are locked. Sometimes he holds a sceptre, to
denote his power; at other times a wand, with which he
directs the movements of his subject ghosts. Homer speaks of
his helmet as having the quality of rendering the wearer
invisible; and tells us that Minerva borrowed it when she
fought against the Trojans, that she might not be discovered
by Mars. Perseus also used this helmet when he cut off
Medusa's head.
Mythologists pretend that Pluto is the earth, the natural
powers and faculties of which are under his direction, so
that he is monarch not only of all riches which come
from thence, and are at length swallowed up by it, but
likewise of the dead; for as all living things spring from
the earth, so are they resolved into the principles whence
they arose. Proserpine is by them reputed to be the seed or
grain of fruits or corn, which must be taken into the earth,
and hid there before it can be nourished by it.
Myths about the Roman God Pluto
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