Hades is the brother of Zeus. As Zeus shared out the world he ascribed him the underworld. The same as all his brothers and sisters he was eaten by Cronus and later liberated by Zeus. Together they fought against the Titans.

Except of some cases he was inconsiderate and severe and never let anybody leave his Kingdom once they had arrived. He was allied with the demons and some ghosts such as Charon, the sailor who escorts the souls of the dead over the Styx into the kingdom of the dead. Hades fell in love with Persephone, the daughter of Artemis, and raped her in his empire.

Some famous heroes as Heracles, Orpheus or Odysseus succeeded to return alive out of the kingdom of the dead. This kingdom was a quite dark and sad place where people couldn’t find pleasure. Tantalos or Sisyphus, for instance, got punished very hard: Tantalos was standing with water up to the hips and tasteful fruits growing above his head. If he tried to reach them the tree it moved away, if he tried to drink from the water it moved also away.