Today’s topic is how Haides represents the values of the Hellenic pantheon and continuing culture of Greece. Personally, along with his sister Hestia, I feel that Haides represents one of the major virtues of both the culture and the pantheon; he represents the virtue of hospitality.

While Hestia cares for mortals during their life by being the hearth they gather around. When they die, however, it is Haides who receives them into his realm. He is the Hospitable One for all those who pass into the afterlife, and he is the one who provides the Springs of Lethe and Mnemosyne for the spirits who choose to be reborn.

He also represents the virtue of Justice, which is a virtue in Hellenic culture and most other cultures in the world. He sits enthroned alongside Persephone when the souls of mankind are judged and the two of them are the last resort of those souls. He is the one who Heracles and Orpheus both appealed to in their various adventures, and is the one who enforces the edicts of the other Theoi.