The Underworld

The Underworld — in Greek Hades, named after its ruler — is the underground realm where all souls of the deceased go. Located at the edges of the Earth, accessible after a journey beyond the great river Ocean, it is divided into several distinct regions whose nature depends on the fate of each soul.

Hades rules this kingdom alongside his wife Persephone, daughter of Demeter, whom he abducted from the surface of the Earth. The two deities exercise absolute and impartial power over the fate of the dead. Unlike other gods, Hades does not seek war or adventures: he simply fulfills his role as master of shadows, inevitable and just.

The underground realm is divided into several distinct zones:

The Erebus is the darkest region, the first zone crossed by souls upon arrival. The Elysian Fields welcome virtuous souls in eternal bliss, gardens of light where the cool waters of the Lethe flow. The Isle of the Blessed — even further — is reserved for heroes and demigods of absolute purity.

The Tartarus, an unfathomable abyss as far below the Underworld as the Underworld is below the Earth, is the prison of the Titans and the place of torment for the greatest criminals. There one finds Sisyphus pushing his rock, Tantalus eternally starving, Ixion bound to his wheel of fire.

The Underworld is crossed by five rivers with distinct properties:

Crossing the Styx was the first mandatory passage: Charon, the ferryman of the dead, only transported souls carrying an obol — a coin placed in the mouth or on the eyes of the deceased during funeral rites. Without this coin, the soul wandered for one hundred years on the bank.

The Hades Saga faithfully transposes the structure of the Greek Underworld. The underground kingdom of Hades, with its judges — Minos, Rhadamanthus, Aeacus — and its specters bearing the names of infernal creatures, reproduces mythological cosmology through the lens of Saint Seiya.

The 108 specters of Hades correspond to the damned souls of Tartarus, armed with surplices representing the most sinister figures of mythology: Cerberus, Griffin, Sphinx, Minotaur, Harpies... Each specter is a direct borrowing from the guardians and creatures that populated the realm of the dead in ancient texts.