Fields or Meadows. Here the souls of the heroes and ordinary would mix before moving on to the Plain of Judgement. As with most other cultures, the dead would then have to answer for the actions and deeds they had undertaken during their lives. Judgement was undertaken by a triumvirate of judges; Aeacus, Minos and Rhadamanthus, who came to their decision as they sat in front of the palace of Hades, the god, and his wife Persephone. Aeacus in life had been the king of Aegina, as well as a son of Zeus and Aegina. Minos had been king of Crete and son of Zeus and Europa, and Rhadamanthus was his brother and also a prior king of Crete.
The three judges would come to a decision of what would happen to the soul of the deceased. If the life had been lead where the good and evil had balanced themselves out then the soul was returned to the Asphodel Fields to live out eternity. For those that whose life was said to have been evil, then they were consigned to Tartarus, or hell in modern terms.
Tartarus had long played an important role in Greek mythology. In the time before the Olympian gods, it had acted as a prison. Chronos, the supreme Titan, had imprisoned his offspring, the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires, in Tartarus, and guarded by the dragon Kampe, so a prophecy of his overthrow could not occur. Zeus, also used it as a prison after he was victorious in the Titanomachy, imprisoning the majority of Titans, who were then guarded by the gigantic Hecatonchires. The Titans were joined by later prisoners, including the monster Typhon, as well as Tantalus and Ixion. Escape from Tartarus was said to impossible, as Tartarus was at a depth of forty thousand miles, as approximated from the assertion that a bronze anvil would fall for nine days before it reached Tartarus.
Just as there was a hell in Hades, there was also a heaven, and this was the Islands of the Blessed, also known as the Elysian Fields. The Elysian Fields were for those judged virtuous by the triumvirate, as well as the dwelling of the heroes. Little is said about the Elysian Fields in the Greek tales, although it would appear that all heroes were judged to be virtuous no matter what their deeds. Some tales though do state that Zeus at some point released his father, Chronos, from Tartarus to rule over paradise.
Hades, the Underworld, plays a major role in a number of other Greek tales. The Greek hero Theseus travelled into Hades with Pirithous in order to abduct Persephone, who Pirithous wished to marry. Hades,
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