Hades Speaks!: A Guide to the Underworld by the Greek God of the Dead
DOWN DOWN DOWN I HOPE YOU RE NOT AFRAID of the dark If you are you might consider shutting this book and running outside to play with bubbles in the sunshine Seriously my world is the complete absence of
dark dim gloomy sinister you name it No birds chirping in the sunlight around here Instead you might find some bloodthirsty bats and even an occasional winged Fury screeching at us If you think you can handle it follow me into this cave entrance Ahhhh cold musty moldy wet darkness The blackness embraces you like a thick cloak of slime doesn't it I hope you're wearing comfortable shoes too It s a long way down My people the ancient Greeks were a strong hardy lot and would not have been fazed by this long descent into darkness The ancient Greeks lived more than 2 500 years ago and were responsible for many of the things you take for granted today such as democracy freedom of speech theater money the Olympic Games and crazy politicians In fact Greece is often called the cradle of Western civilization In other words without us you wouldn’t be you You may thank us for this gift later preferably with a sacrifice of gold In my name if you please Anyway so impressive were my people the Romans copied just about everything they could stealer I mean borrow from us including Greek architecture
philosophy sculpture theater and most importantly us Greek gods The Romans renamed us of course but we'll talk about those toga wearing thieves later My people lived on mainland Greece and its surrounding islands Most of Greece is a rocky mountainous place which created tough rugged adventuresome people The Greeks sailed into regions unknown to them anyway and established cities in what is now Turkey and even Italy While the ancient Greeks were brilliant they were also a tad warlike They battled among their many city states like you and your friends fight for the last piece of candy in the bowl Athens fought Sparta in a war that lasted decades and got just about every city state involved in picking sides They also fought off invasions from their dreaded enemies the Persians But don't get me wrong I'm not complaining about all that death and destruction It made my underworld a very busy place Aside from their many innovations however it is my opinion that the Greek’s greatest achievement was and I say this with all humility the creation of us the Greek
HOW IT ALL STARTED he Greeks believed that gods of earth Gaia and sky Ouranos gave birth to the first gods of the world the Titans Kronos the Titan god of time and age overthrew his father and took control of the cosmos His angry parents foretold that one of Kronos's own children would depose him which is why we gods began as baby food Kronos's brilliant plan for getting around the prophecy was to eat his kids as soon as his wife Rhea bore them See because we were immortal he couldn't actually kill us But he could keep us prisoners inside himself He started by gobbling my sisters Hestia Demeter and Hera I came next making me the firstborn son I should point out followed by Poseidon Our mom Rhea was not happy about her husband's baby eating habit but she didn’t know how to stop him Finally by the time my little brother Zeus was born she came up with a plan Really Mom Nothing occurred to you until the sixth child Rhea gave birth to Zeus in secret sent him to a faraway cave and gave Kronos a rock wrapped in a baby blanket to eat instead Our father swallowed the rock and Zeus got to grow up with beautiful nymph nannies and dancing
