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The Underworld
Your Time Has Run Out
 After
Clotho had spun your life’s
thread and after Lachesis measured
your life’s span, Atropos cuts your
life’s thread.
 Coins would be placed over your
eyes as fare for the boatman,
Charon, who would take your soul to
the Underworld via the River Styx,
the river of unbreakable oaths.
The River Styx
 The
River Styx was a river in Greek
mythology which formed the
boundary between Earth and the
Underworld (often called Hades
which is also the name of this
domain's ruler). It circles the
Underworld nine times. This river
caused those crossing it to forget
their lives and be prepared to enter
the Underworld forever.
Palace of Hades

In the forecourt of the palace of Hades
and Persephone sit the three judges of the
Underworld: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and
Aeacus. This is where the souls are
judged, returned to the Fields of Asphodel
if they are neither virtuous nor evil, sent
by the road to Tartarus if they are
considered foul or evil, or sent to Elysium
(Islands of the Blessed) with the
"blameless" heroes.
Judgment Pavilion
 This
pavilion played the same role as
the forecourt of Hades’ Palace. I had
found two different places on where
the souls were judged. One
suggested that it was in the palace of
Hades himself, while other said that
the three judges resided in the
Judgment Pavilion.
Tartarus
 In
classic mythology, below Heaven,
Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus. It is a
deep, gloomy place, a pit used as a
dungeon of torment and suffering
that resides beneath the underworld.
Plato once said that souls were
judged after death and those who
received punishment were sent to
Tartarus. As a place of punishment,
it can be considered a hell.
The Asphodel Meadows

The Asphodel Meadows is where the souls of
people who lived lives of near equal good and evil
rested. It essentially was a plain of Asphodel
flowers, which were the favorite food of the
Greek dead. It is described as a ghostly place
that is an even less perfect version of life on
earth. Some depictions describe it as a land of
utter neutrality. That is, while the people are
neither good nor evil, so are their lives treated,
as they mechanically perform their daily tasks.
Other depictions have also stated that all
residents drink from the river Lethe, the rive or
forgetfulness, before entering the fields, thus
losing their identities and becoming something
similar to a machine.
Island of the Blessed
In the Fortunate Isles, also called the
Island of the Blessed, heroes and other
favored mortals in Greek mythology were
received by the gods into a blissful
paradise.
 Plutarch wrote “where the air was never
extreme, which for rain had a little silver
dew, which of itself and without labor,
bore all pleasant fruits to their happy
dwellers, till it seemed to him that these
could be no other than the Fortunate
Islands, the Elysian Fields.”

Other Figures Famously
Associated with the Underworld



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
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Cerberus-3-headed dog, guardian, pet of Hades
Hecate-Goddess of witchcraft, sorcery
Thanatos-represents death itself
Tantalus-never allowed to drink or eat as his
divine punishment
Tityus-giant who was eaten by vultures
Ixion-spun on a flaming wheel as his punishment
Sisyphus-rolled a rock up a hill continuously, only
to have it roll to the bottom overnight.