Speech on The Underworld in Greek Mythology :: Ancient Greece Greek History

Speech on The Underworld in Grecian MythologyThe Underworld, better known as Hades after the god who command it, was a dark and dreary place where the shades, or souls, of those who died lived. In the coterminous few minutes, I will tell you about how genius came to die, the topography of the Underworld, and the beings whom dwelled there. Your hale life was planned and plotted by the Fates. The Fates were the three goddesses who controlled the destiny of everyone from the era they were born to the time they died. They were Clotho, the spinner, who spun the withdraw of a persons life, Lachesis, the apporitioner, who decided how much time was to be allowed each person, and Atropos, the inevitable, who cut the thread when you were supposed to die. When Atropos cut your thread you were dead and then you made your journey to Hades. Upon death, the shade is lead by Hermes to the entrance of the Underworld and to the banks of the Acheron. There were five rivers that made up the Unde rworld. They were the Acheron (the river of woe), Cocytus (the river of lamentation), Phlegethon (river of fire), Lethe (river of forgetfulness), and the Styx (river of hate). This poem, write by an anonymous writer, was written about the rivers in the Underworld. Abhorred Styx, the flood of mischievous hate, Sad Acheron of sorrow black and deep Cocytus named of lamentation loud comprehend on the rueful stream fierce Phlegethon Whose waves of torrent fire arouse with rage. Far off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks this instant his former state and being forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. When one would die, the family would place one obol, or a coin, under the deceaseds tongue. This coin would fall in as fare to Charon who would ferry the dead over the Acheron River. Charon is the ferryman who is often represent as an old sulky man, or as a wing demon carrying a double hammer . Those who cannot afford to pay Charon were doomed to delight in the banks of the Acheron River for one hundred years. Guarding the Underworld was the three-headed dog Cerberus. He permitted new hard liquor to enter, but never one to leave. When you arrived at the Underworld, three judges stubborn your sentence.