The dog is Cerberus, and on two occasions I know of was over come. Once my music and once by Hercules. Hades rules the Underworld (which is also called Hades at times, with Tartarus and the Elysian Feilds as sub-sections. Charon is the boatmans name and ussualy is depicted to look like the grim reaper. Hades, Zeus, and Posidion drew lots to see who would rule which aspect of the world. Zeus won and got the sky and the earth, Posidion got second place and chose the seas, Hades got stuck with the underworld.

Hades fell in love with a goddes names Persephone, who he dragged to the underworld. Persephone's mother was Demeter, Goddess of plants. When Persephone was kidnapped she greived and all plant life withered. While the underworld Hades talked Persephone into eating a pomegranate seed (some versions of the myth say six seeds) so she could never completatly leave the underworld. Zeus ordered Hades to let her go. She has to return on a regualr bases though, and when she is gone Demeter again causes the land to go barren. And so the pattern of the seasons was established.

Hades is the god of death and the god of wealth.
Persephone is the goddess of death and the a fertility goddess (goddess of Spring)

Persephone's Roman name is Proserpina
Hades Roman name is Pluto (also Dis and Orcus)

Hades is depicted as being gloomy, stern, and deaf to appealls, so you can't bribe your way out of death.

Aside from the Elisian Feilds (for only the very good) and Tartarus (for those cursed by the gods) the realm of the dead is a dim and endless dullment, there is no punishement and also no pleasure. Think of it as watching a test pattern for eternity, it isn't painful like Teletubbies, but not fun like Loony Toons.

Acheron is the river of woe, one of the five rivers of the under world and the one the dead must cross. Acheron is also sometimes used as a name for all of the underworld. In some myths the river the dead crossed was Styx.

Cocytus was the river of Lamentation

Lethe was the river Oblivion

Phlegethon was the river of Fire and fed into Acheron

Styx was the river of hate and wound around the realm of the dead five times. A oath sworn apon river Styx was binding, even for the gods.

Elisium (also the Elysian Feilds) is identifed with the Island of the blessed and is sometimes seen as part of the underworld but is also sometimes seen as a seperate place entirerly.
It was not so much a place for the good dead, but for those who had positive connections with the gods. If Zeus liked you, you got in, even if you were a scum bag. Menelaus went to the Elysian Feilds soley for marrying Helen, which made him Zeus's son in law.

Hercules once dragged Cerberus up from the underworld as one of his 12 labors. Cerberus had a serpents tail and a main of serpents.

Acording to Homer Tartarus is were Zeus confined the immortal Titans after he and the other Olympian God overthrew them. Also humans who offened the God were sent here, like Tantalus who can never reach food or water, when ever he tries it draws back, just out of reach. Sisyphus must forever push a rock up a hill when ever he gets close it rolls down again and he must start over. It is not that they were more evil than other men, but they commited evil acts aginst the gods.

Hades (as Pluto or Plutus) was the god of wealth because mineral wealth (gold, dimonds, etc.) came out of the ground, and the underworld is, as the name suggest under the ground.

Achillies was dipped the the river Styx as a child, which made him invulnerable (accept his heel, which was not invulnerable and led to his death).

The Lake Avernus (which I once fell into) in Souther Italy is counted in the tale of Aeneas as a gateway to The Infernal Realms (a Roman term for the underworld). It sits the crater of a extinct volcano and in the time of the Roman empire sulfur vapors came up from the water. They have since stopped.

The Greeks, like most people belived in a life after death, but not in a final judgment. Most people would just wander the grey lands of the underworld, neither enjoying themselves or suffering. Only those who were loved or despised by the gods got special treatment. If you were a good man who angered a god you could still be sent to Tartarus, even if you didn't mean to anger the gods. And if you were a murderus scum bag you could still get into the Elysian Feilds if you had the contacts.

I hope this helps, Mythology is a favortie topic of mine. I got out my copies of 'Bulfinch's Mythology' and the 'Dictionary of Mythology' to find this info.

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