Who fought with the ruler of the underworld, Hades. God Hades: detailed description, underworld, abilities, family

The legends of Ancient Hellas tell of the gloomy underground kingdom of Hades, the brother of the supreme god of Olympus Zeus and also the acting god of the Kingdom of the Dead.

Ancient Greek legends say that after death all people fall into kingdom of Hades and they lead there to a miserable, incorporeal existence without joys, passions and pleasures.

In the kingdom of Hades, the weather is always cloudy and not the slightest ray of the warming and life-giving Sun ever breaks through. The underground landscape of the kingdom of Hades is covered with sparse vegetation and cut by the freezing muddy waters of the rivers Styx and Lethe, which in human civilization have become symbols of Oblivion and Death.

When Hades, the god of the earthly kingdom of the dead, felt a little lonely, he decided to get married. Having previously received the consent of the supreme god Zeus, Hades secretly kidnapped the young Persephone, the daughter of the fertility goddess Demeter.

Assuming that the divine relatives of the beautiful Persephone would not leave this criminal act without consequences, Hades prudently gave Persephone a witchcraft potion made from pomegranate juice. After which Persephone could no longer exist normally in the Upper World.

Since then, Persephone spends part of the year on the surface, with relatives, and most of the year in the underground world of sleep, death and ethereal shadows in the kingdom of Hades.

Being the Goddess of Vegetation and Death, during Persephone's stay on the surface everything in the world blossoms and bears fruit. And when Persephone descends into the gloomy Hades, autumn and winter come on earth and all biological processes of the plant world are suspended.

The famous show business star of Ancient Greece, author and performer Orpheus fell in love with the forest nymph Eurydice. The young people lived in happiness and harmony, until one day, while walking through the forests and valleys, a certain local shepherd and beekeeper noticed young Eurydice. The shepherd decided that since the girl was walking on her own, she was no one’s and he could take her as his wife or concubine.

It seems that the abduction of young girls was common in ancient Greece. Chasing the girl, the shepherd drove Eurydice to complete despair and she tried to hide in the river. Unfortunately, an evil viper reptile nearby bit the girl, who died on the spot without qualified medical assistance.

When the Gods of Olympus were informed of the shepherd's monstrous crime, as punishment they sent a pestilence to his apiary and all the bees died.

Orpheus soon learned that his beloved had died and was in the kingdom of Hades. The young man went to the earthly kingdom to ask Hades for mercy. And indeed, Hades and Persephone agreed to release Eurydice into the world of the Living.

In parting, Hades strictly ordered Orpheus under no circumstances to turn back until he brought Eurydice to the surface.

Unfortunately, already at the very exit from the kingdom of Hades, Orpheus could not stand it. Not hearing Eurydice’s steps behind him, the young man decided that she had fallen behind and looked back. At that same moment, the girl literally began to melt before our eyes and soon turned into an ethereal spirit and flew back to the kingdom of Hades.

This is such a sad story.

Many centuries later, during the heyday of spiritualism in Europe, at one of the sessions the spirit of Orpheus was evoked and the ancient Greek hero described kingdom of Hades like a very sad and dreary place, where nothing interesting happens and only the ethereal and powerless shadows of the dead and some other demonic entities, also very similar to ethereal and insensitive shadows, always wander around.

Strangely, the description of ancient Greek kingdom of Hades echoes the description of the World of Shadows in American Indian legends. Old shamans talk about traveling to the other world or parallel world, where shadow entities or demons in the European sense live.

• Shamans penetrate into this world of shadows through practiced lucid dreaming.
• When a shaman practices lucid dreaming for a long time and accumulates a large amount of personal energy, shadow entities from a parallel world pay attention to him.
• These shadow entities, in some incomprehensible way, can also travel in dreams and can meet and even come into contact with sleeping people in a dream state.

Having discovered a traveling shaman in the dream world, the inhabitants of the world of shadows invite him to visit the other world and see how good it is there:

• In the world of shadows there is no death, since there is no life.
• In the world of shadows there are no crimes and murders, there is no cruelty and evil, since there are no passions and no one needs anything.
• There are no lies and deceit in the world of shadows, since everyone can completely calmly read the thoughts of everyone else.
• In the world of shadows there is no need to utter words; communications take place on a telepathic level.

American shamans who have visited the world of shadows describe it literally in detail as similar to the ancient Greek kingdom of Hades. Only the world of shadows is not a place where the souls of the dead go, but simply a parallel world, different from ours.

Some people consciously and of their own free will remain to live forever in the world of shadows due to moral disagreement with the cruelties and criminal essence of our world.

In order to remain living in the world of shadows and become immortal, a living person needs to loudly and loudly express his intention to do so in a dream.

After this, “the contract with the devil is considered final” and there is no longer any return to the world of the living. When trying to escape, the entire demonic army gives chase. Everything is exactly as described in ancient Greek legends.

Conclusion

Where did the information about the kingdom of Hades come from?

From the stories of ancient Greek priests. However, priests of all times had the custom of speaking allegorically, in parables. Therefore, the stories of the priests about the kingdom of Hades could be misinterpreted by ordinary people. Hence the erroneous idea of ​​the kingdom of Hades as an afterlife where the souls of dead people go.

For centuries, archaeologists and historians have described the Egyptian pyramids as the tombs of the pharaohs, but modern science refutes this hypothesis and claims that there is absolutely no evidence that the pyramids could have been used as burial places. And no one has ever found any mummies in the pyramids.

So the legends about kingdom of Hades how the wave may be a misinterpretation of the metaphorical explanations given by the ancient priests.

When I revealed to my companions where our path now lay, they were horrified, but, obeying my orders, they boarded the ship and we sailed to the distant north. The sorceress Kirk sent us a fair wind. He quickly drove our ship. Finally, we reached the waters of the gray Ocean and landed on the shore of the sad country of the Cimmerians, where the god Helios never shines for people. This country is forever covered with cold fog, the darkness of night is forever shrouding it in a thick veil. There we pulled our ship ashore, took the sheep and black ram given to us by Pickaxe for sacrifice to the underground gods, and went to the place where Cocytus and Pyriphlegethontus flow into the Acheron near a high cliff. Arriving there, I dug a deep hole with a sword, made three libations over it with honey, wine and water, sprinkling everything with barley flour, and slaughtered the victim over the hole. The blood of the victims poured into the pit. The souls of the dead flocked in a great crowd to the pit and started a dispute about who should drink the sacrificial blood first. Here were the souls of brides, youths, elders and husbands killed in battles. Horror seized me and my companions. We burned the sacrifices and appealed to the gloomy god Hades and his wife, the goddess Persephone. I drew my sword and sat down next to the pit, so as not to allow the souls of the dead to reach it. The soul of young Elpenor approached first. Before us, his soul rushed to the gates of the kingdom of the souls of the dead. Elpenor begged me to bury his body so that his soul could find peace in the kingdom of Hades. I promised to fulfill his request. The soul of my mother Anticlea also flew to the pit. She was alive when I left Ithaca. No matter how painful it was for me, I didn’t let her near the pit either, since the soothsayer Tiresias was supposed to drink the blood first. Finally, the soul of Tiresias appeared. Having drunk blood, the disembodied soul turned to me and told me that the god Poseidon, the shaker of the earth, was angry with me because I had blinded his son, the cyclops Polyphemus. But even against the will of Poseidon I will reach my homeland, as Tiresias predicted to me, unless my companions touch the bulls of Helios on the island of Trinacria. But if my companions kill the bulls, then they will all die; I alone will be saved and after great disasters I will return home. There I will take revenge on the suitors, but after that, taking the oar, I will have to wander until I meet a people who do not know navigation, who have never seen ships; I recognize these people by the fact that someone I meet will ask me why I am carrying a shovel on my shoulder. In this country I must make a sacrifice to Poseidon and only after that return home. At home I must make a rich sacrifice to all the gods; only then will I live peacefully in Ithaca until my death. This is what the prophetic Tiresias predicted to me and left. I've seen a lot of souls. The soul of my mother told me, having drunk blood, what was happening in her native Ithaca before her death, and reassured me, saying that my father Laertes, and Penelope, and young Telemachus were alive. I wanted to hug my dearly beloved mother, three times I stretched out my arms to her, but three times her light shadow slipped away. I saw the shadows of many heroes in the kingdom of Hades, but I am not able to list them all, the whole night would not be enough for that. It’s late now, it’s time to interrupt my story, it’s time for everyone to retire.

So said Odysseus. But all those gathered began to ask Odysseus to continue the story, and Queen Aretha and King Alcinous also asked him. Everyone was ready to listen to Odysseus until dawn. Odysseus began to continue his story.

I saw the soul of King Agamemnon in the kingdom of Hades. He complained bitterly about his wife Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, who killed the king of Mycenae on the day of his return. The soul of Agamemnon advised me not to trust my wife Penelope upon returning to Ithaca. I also saw the souls of Achilles, Patroclus, Antilochus and Telamonides Ajax. I told Achilles about the great exploits of his son Neoptolemus, and he rejoiced, although he had previously bitterly complained about the joyless life in the kingdom of the dead and wished it was better to be the last farm laborer on earth than to be a king in the kingdom of the souls of the dead. I wanted to reconcile with the great Ajax - I seriously offended him when we argued over the armor of Achilles - but Ajax silently left without saying a word to me. I also saw the judge of the dead, King Minos. I saw the torment of Tantalus and Sisyphus. Finally, the soul of the greatest of the heroes, Hercules, approached me, he himself was on Olympus, in the host of immortal gods. I waited for the souls of other great heroes of bygone times to approach, but the souls raised such a terrible cry that I ran in fear to the ship. I was afraid that the goddess Persephone would send the terrible gorgon Medusa.

We quickly launched the ship onto the water of the gray Ocean and left the country of the Cimmerians. Soon we safely reached the island of Aea and, landing on the shore, we fell into a peaceful sleep.

Deep underground, the evil and treacherous god Hades reigns. His sad domains are full of darkness and monsters. Living souls are prohibited from entering here, and the dead wander aimlessly through the meadow planted with asphodels, or suffer in eternal suffering.

History of appearance and image

In the mythology of Ancient Greece, Hades has a double meaning: it is both the name of the god of the underworld of the dead, and the underworld itself, where souls go after death. The kingdom of shadows in the ancient tradition is located in the west, just beyond the Ocean River. However, in Homer one can find two places where living beings go to rest: human shadows live in Hades, and the overthrown titans live in Tartarus.

Hades as a god has a rich biography and plays a serious role in mythology. The father devoured the offspring of the titan (or god of agriculture) Cronus and the titanide Rhea at birth, like his other children - , and . Later, Hades participated in the first war of the gods and titans on the side of the Olympians, and during the division of the world he took the helm of the Kingdom of the Dead.

In antiquity, Hades was revered as the lord of underground wealth - he bestowed harvests from the bowels of the earth. This idea did not appear by chance. People were afraid to pronounce the name of the terrible god out loud, so researchers of the ancient epic believe that the second name, which took root in the 5th century, Pluto, was received thanks to people’s selection of epithets. As a result, Hades was endowed with the features and characteristics of the god of wealth and fertility Plutos, and the characteristics of the image softened a little.

In the legends, Hades has a hat-helmet that makes the owner invisible - a gift from the Cyclopes for liberation. Ruthless, cunning and gloomy, the underground Zeus, as he called him, sends upon people a languid feeling of hopelessness and doom, and with the help of a sword locks souls in the Kingdom of the Dead. Another ability of God is the ability to revive the dead, but he rarely uses this gift, because he considers it wrong to violate the laws of life.

In appearance, Hades is like Zeus. The deity was represented as an elderly man with a luxurious beard. Sometimes he was depicted with a two-pronged pitchfork or with a scepter, the tip of which was crowned with the heads of three dogs. Hades has the ability to leave the Kingdom of the Dead and travels around the world in a carriage drawn by black horses.

Hades and the Kingdom of the Dead

In mature Greek mythology, several paths lead to the Kingdom of the Dead. Souls and living guests (and there were many such visitors) enter through at least three doors: at Cape Tenare (Laconia), at the Italian Lake Avernus and at Pylos (in the western Peloponnese). The gloomy Charon transports the aliens across the Acheron River, which separates the world of the dead from the underworld. Shadows is warmly greeted by a three-headed dog - he lets the guests inside, but does not let anyone out.

Then the souls will have to appear before Aeacus and Rhadamanthus, who are endowed with the authority to judge the actions of people. If grave sins are not discovered, the soul takes a sip from the River Lethe, forever forgets its former life and wanders in detachment through the endless field where the asphodels bloom. Great sinners who have committed serious crimes are doomed to suffer torment on the banks of the River Styx. However, the martyrs are given the opportunity to beg forgiveness from the victims and also settle in a meadow with asphodels: once a year, souls float to Lake Acherusia, where they meet with those they offended.

Hades rules the Kingdom of Shadows with his wife. God once kidnapped the patroness of fertility from her mother Demeter and forcibly took her as his wife. The mother was overcome by grief over parting with her beloved daughter, so much so that the earth stopped bearing fruit.

In desperation, the goddess turned to Zeus with a demand to return Persephone, and the supreme god ordered his brother to fulfill the request. Hades agreed, but resorted to a trick - he fed his wife a pomegranate, so she was destined to return to the dark underworld. Since then, Persephone has lived on earth for two thirds of the year, and the rest of the time she helps her husband rule Hades.

Hades and other heroes of myths

The terrible god is mentioned in the myth about. A musician and poet, in the hope of finding his dead beloved, descended into the kingdom of the dead. With the magical music of the harp, the man managed to win the heart of Hades, and the lord of the underworld allowed Eurydice to return to earth.

In the stories, Hades interacts with a scattering of characters. The main offenders of the ruler of the Kingdom of the Dead included.

Some myths say that Hercules wounded Hades in the shoulder during the battle for the city of Pylos. In others, the god was injured when the fearless hero, the son of Zeus, came to the gates of the underworld to steal the terrible three-headed guard Cerberus for King Eurystheus.

Theseus demanded that Hades give Pirithous, king of the Lapiths, his wife Persephone. The angry ruler of the underworld showed no emotion, deciding to defeat the offenders by cunning: he invited Theseus and Pirithous to make themselves more comfortable on the throne. When they sat down, they clung tightly to him. Later, Theseus was saved by Hercules, but the king of the Lapiths was left to while away his century in a dark dungeon.

Film adaptations

Filmmakers have enjoyed working with material based on ancient Greek myths, and Hades has appeared in several films. With the participation of the character, they even released a cartoon and a TV series – “Hercules”. The god of the underworld plans to overthrow his brother Zeus and seize power in the world of the living. The plans are thwarted by her nephew Hercules, whom the deity is trying to destroy by all means. In the Russian dubbing, the antagonist is voiced by actor Nikolai Burov.

One of the main roles of the ruler of the Kingdom of the Dead was given in the film “Wrath of the Titans” (1981) and the remake “Clash of the Titans” (2010). The first action adventure film was directed by Jonathan Liebesman, and the sequel was created by Louis Leterrier. He appeared in the image of Hades.

In 2009, viewers saw a film adaptation of the novel “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.” The villain Hades hunts the lightning of Zeus. The role was played by Briton Steve Coogan.

The authors of the television series "Call of Blood", aired on Canadian television since 2010, also experimented with the image of Hades, turning him into the father of the main character named Bo - a supernatural creature, an energy vampire, but a girl with a kind soul. Reincarnated as Hades.

The serial life of God continued in the work of Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz “Once Upon a Time.” In this fantasy, the hero acts as an antagonist. The Hades costume was tried on by American Greg Germann.

The Greek heroes, in whom the blood of the gods splashed, were in many ways superior to ordinary people and because of this they began to consider themselves omnipotent. Faith in one's own power and invulnerability sometimes did not lead to good things, but the dashing guys - the winners of terrible monsters - simply did not know how to do otherwise. So Theseus, who returned home after the story with the Minotaur, became the king of Athens, united Attica around them, and then went with an embassy to the country of the Amazons. The hero liked the queen of the Amazons Antiope so much that he, without hesitation, took her away on his ship and made her his wife. The army that came to the aid of the queen was defeated, but Antiope, who fought against her own subjects, died. Theseus once again entered into a not very successful marriage, soon became a widower and began to think about a new wife.

Together with their friend, the king of the Lapiths, Pirithous, an equally desperate warrior, they came to the conclusion that the only women worthy of them should be the offspring of Zeus himself. Of the daughters of the Thunderer, only the beautiful Elena was found on earth, who turned twelve, which did not stop Theseus from kidnapping the girl and hiding her in his possessions. To find a bride for Pirithous, the friends went to the oracle, who advised them not to waste time on trifles, but to immediately woo Persephone. Not catching the irony, the suitors decided to go down to Hades. Theseus and Pirithous made their way through intricate, roundabout paths into the underground kingdom and appeared before the eyes of the ruler, impressed by such impudence. Without showing any indignation, Hades invited them to sit down and try the treats. But as soon as the would-be suitors touched the stone throne, snake rings immediately encircled them. The hero and his friend were rooted to the stone, not remembering themselves, for it was the throne of oblivion. The Erinyes came to scourge them for their insolence, and Cerberus bit the helpless captives.

Fortunately for Theseus, the last test brought Hercules to Hades. Desperate to kill the strong man, King Eurystheus ordered him to go underground and get Cerberus. It is unknown what would have come of this campaign if Hercules had not been Hermes’ guide. Together with the messenger of Zeus, the hero entered Hades, where many sad meetings with former friends awaited him. In the end, he saw Theseus and Pirithous begging for salvation and was able to tear the victorious Minotaur from the throne of oblivion. Pirithous, who did not possess divine blood, did not survive the test. But Hercules succeeded - the hero wrapped himself in a lion's skin and no matter how much Cerberus dug into him, powerful hands twisted the guard and dragged him out of Hades. It is unknown who experienced the greater shock: Eurystheus or Cerberus, who did not know the daytime world, but only Hercules dragged the dog to the royal palace, putting an end to his service. Then Hercules released Cerberus and himself gained freedom, being one of the few who managed to return safe and sound from the possessions of Hades.

Hades (Hades, Aidoneus, Hell, Pluto), god of the underworld of the dead

Hades (Hades, Aidoneus, Hell, Pluto), Greek - son of Cronus and Rhea, god of the kingdom of the dead.

Hades was the eldest of the sons of Cronus and, together with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon, formed a trinity highest gods of the Greek pantheon. After the victory over Cronus (see the article “Cronus”), the brothers decided to divide the legacy of Cronus by lot, and Zeus arranged everything so that he got power over heaven and earth, Poseidon - power over the sea, and Hades became the almighty ruler of the underworld of the dead .

It cannot be said that Hades had the most successful lot, but it was quite suitable for his gloomy and unforgiving character. His kingdom was truly terrible, it was hidden in the depths of the earth, inaccessible to the rays of sunlight. There stretched a dismal plain, overgrown with pale flowers of wild asphodel, along which five rivers flowed, forming the boundaries of this kingdom: the chilling Styx, the river of lamentation Acheron, the river of sorrow Kokyt, the fiery river Pyriphlegethon and the dark Lethe, the water of which gave oblivion to the former earthly life. Few heroes managed to go down to the kingdom of Hades and return from there alive, but they could tell little about what it looked like. They say that in the west there was Elysium (Elysian [blessed, heavenly] fields), where the souls of the righteous lived eternal life, somewhere in the very depths of the underworld - Tartarus, in which sinners served their eternal punishments, and in the fenced part of this kingdom was Erebus - here stood the palace of Hades and his wife Persephone, who commanded the underground gods and the souls of the dead.

The souls of the dead on their way to the kingdom of Hades pass through dark abysses leading to the depths of the earth. One of them was located at Cape Tenar at the southern end of the Peloponnese, another in the Attic Colon, another near Etna in Sicily; According to Homer, the entrance to the kingdom of the dead was located in the extreme west, where the rays of the sun did not reach. The entrance gate of the kingdom of Hades was guarded by the three-headed dog Kerberus, who willingly let in strangers, but did not let anyone out. The road from the gate led to the waters of Acheron, where the grumpy old man Charon was waiting for them with his boat. Charon charged a fee from the dead for transportation across the river, but did not agree to take them in the opposite direction for any money. Having parted with Charon, the soul of the deceased comes to the throne of Hades, at the foot of which sit the judges of the dead, Minos, Radamanthos and Eak - the sons of Zeus. Only a few ended up in Elysium, in the blissful fields. Punishments were imposed on the souls of criminals depending on the degree of their guilt, and those who were neither good nor evil (or were both) were sent to the asphodel meadow, doomed to wander around it in the form of a shadow, not knowing any joy , no sadness, no desires. There were a majority of such people, and their number often included the greatest heroes. (Among them was; how he lived there can be judged by his complaint to Odysseus: “I would prefer on earth to be a farm laborer for an insignificant wage / For a poor man, a homeless man, to work forever / Than to be here the king of the dead who said goodbye to life.")

Poster and stills from the film "Clash of the Titans". The role of Hades is played by actor Liam Neeson, who agreed to act because his sons are big fans of Greek mythology.

There were fewer gods of the underworld, subject to Hades, than those of heaven or sea, but they inspired even more terror in people. The first among them was the god Thanatos in a black cloak and with black ice wings, who cut off the hair of the dying and carried away their souls. Among them were the gloomy Kera, who destroyed warriors on the battlefield and sucked their blood; there was the disgusting Empusa, who killed travelers at crossroads; the terrible Lamia, who stole and devoured sleeping children; three-headed and three-body Hecate; the god of intoxicating sleep Hypnos, before whom neither people nor gods can resist; There were also the inexorable Erinyes, goddesses of curse and revenge, obedient only to Persephone, the wife of Hades.

People hated the kingdom of Hades, because everyone who entered it had to abandon all hope. Few heroes managed to return from there: Hercules, Orpheus, Theseus (but Hercules rescued him). The cunning Odysseus visited the threshold of the kingdom of the dead. As Virgil tells us, Aeneas also descended into the underworld.

Painting "Dante and Virgil in Hades", William Bouguereau.

Hades himself rarely left his possessions. Having decided to get married, he went to the surface of the earth, kidnapped Persephone and took her to him. Sometimes he visited the council of the gods on Olympus. The gods did not like him, and he paid them the same. He usually did not interfere in matters that took place between heaven and earth, as well as in human destinies. After all, he knew well that “everyone who comes into the world at the appointed hour will knock on the gates of the underworld.”

Hades is one of the oldest Greek gods; his name already appears on Linear B tablets (14th-13th centuries BC) found in Pylos. Ideas about him hardly changed in the first post-Homeric centuries. The Greeks also revered Hades as the giver of wealth that came from the depths of the earth (minerals, fruits of agriculture) - in this capacity he was called Pluto. Later, perhaps under the influence of the Eleusinian cult, the image of Hades lost some of its dark features. Although he was still inexorable, people began to build shrines and temples for him. The most famous of them was in Elis (the temple was opened only once a year, and no one except its priest dared to enter it), and also in Eleusis - in front of the cave through which, according to legend, he carried Persephone into his kingdom. Calling on Hades was as easy as shelling pears: it was enough to kneel down and knock on the ground. Of the sacrificial animals, Hades liked black sheep the most. However, it was forbidden to look at the sacrifice being made - one was supposed to look away to the side. The Greeks dedicated cypress from trees to Hades, and narcissus from flowers.

In the depiction of ancient artists, Hades was similar to his brother Zeus, but usually differed from him in his more gloomy appearance and tousled hair. The most famous statues of Hades, Roman copies of Greek originals of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e., differ in the names of the collections in which they are or were: “Hades Vaticanus”, “Pluto Borghese”, “Pluto Uffizi”, “Pluto Parma”. Hades is also depicted on a number of reliefs, starting with the terracotta “Hades and Persephone” (5th century BC) from the city of Lokra and ending with the “Abduction of Persephone” on Roman sarcophagi (late 3rd century AD). Hades, with his palace, his wife and almost all of his subordinates, is depicted on several vases.

European artists did not indulge Hades himself with attention, but he often came to their attention thanks to Persephone - see this in the corresponding article.

Also, Antonio Gades is a legendary Spanish ballet dancer and bailaor.

Stills from the cartoon "Hercules" (1997) with Hades, one of the main characters of the Disney animated series.

There is also the game God of War: Ascension with Hades, a god who gives gamers certain bonuses in multiplayer mode.

News: Archaeologists have found a prototype of the underground kingdom of Hades

Ancient Greek caves the size of almost four football fields and with their own underground lake may be the prototype for myths about the Greek underworld, archaeologists say.

The cave, called Alepotrypa, meaning "secluded place", was hidden from people for centuries in Diros Bay in southern Greece until a man walking his dog found the cave's tiny entrance in 1950. The entrance to the cave itself was blocked about 5,000 years ago.

Experts have been excavating the cave for decades and believe that hundreds of people lived in Alepotrypa. This makes the cave one of the oldest prehistoric sites in Europe.

Archaeologists have now discovered tools, pottery, objects made of obsidian, silver and copper, and artifacts that date back to the Neolithic Age, which began in Greece about 9,000 years ago. The most important discovery was that the cave was used by the ancient inhabitants of those places as a cemetery, which led scientists to believe that it “inspired” people to create a legend about the underworld.

The first archaeologist to excavate the cave suggested that the Neolithic inhabitants believed that the cave was the kingdom of Hades. “It’s not hard to guess why the researcher put forward this hypothesis. The cave really resembles the underworld described in ancient Greek myths. There is a reservoir here, which may have become the prototype of the River Styx. This cave existed at the beginning of the Bronze Age in Mycenaean Greece at the dawn of the era when the myths about the ancient heroes of Greece were formed,” archaeologist Michael Galatay said in an interview with reporters.

“You have to imagine a place filled with people with torches, seeing off the dead on their last journey. The burials and rituals that were carried out in this cave truly create the atmosphere of the underworld. The cave was a kind of place of pilgrimage; only respected people were buried here,” he added. The length of the central hall of the cave is more than 1000 meters, so archaeologists still have a long way to go before they study all the contents of the cave. “We don't know how deep the cave goes. It is likely that we will find Neanderthals in the depths,” the archaeologist added.

Based on materials from RIA Novosti