Plutus

Pluto (in Greek Πλοῦτος " wealth ", " wealth "; Latin Plutus ) is in Greek mythology, first the personification of wealth, later the god of riches coming out of the earth, even so the grain inventories, Erdschätze and the germinating plants.

Pluto is not to be confused with the god of the underworld Pluto / Pluto ( the Roman equivalent of Hades ), even though both may have the same origins. In later times, however, the two gods are equated occasionally.

Mythology

According to legend, Pluto was the son of Demeter and Iasion. Demeter had fallen in love in Crete at the wedding of Cadmus with Harmonia in the youth Iasion. They spoke to the abundant nectar and then went secretly away from the solid addition to a thrice plowed field. There Demeter gave away her lover. After returning betrayed adhering to their arable earth Zeus, what had happened. Iasion was killed immediately after this act of Zeus with a flash.

Because he distributed his gifts indiscriminately, suspected the Greeks, Pluto had been blinded by Zeus.

Pluto was especially worshiped in Eleusis. In the context of the Mysteries of Eleusis Pluto was the divine child, the child's doppelganger of the pluton.

Effect in art

In the visual arts Pluto is often portrayed as a boy with a horn of plenty. Other representations, such as the famous bronze statue Kephisodotos the Elder, which has been handed down in several Roman marble copies, show Pluto as a little boy on the arm of peace goddess Eirene shown that symbolizes the burgeoning prosperity in peacetime, or on the arms of fate goddess Tyche.

Pluto's the title character of the comedy is the wealth of Aristophanes.

Dante Alighieri also can occur Pluto in his Divine Comedy. In the seventh canto of the Inferno Pluto is represented as a wolf -like creature that guarded the spendthrifts and misers in the fourth circle of hell. Since the description of Pluto but is short and vague, but it is possible that Dante Pluto confused with Pluton or equated.

Tyche with Pluto, 2nd century

Pluto in the fourth circle of hell, illustration by Gustave Doré