ulcate the doctrine of the future reward
and punishment of good and bad deeds. Aides, who had hitherto been regarded
as the dread enemy of mankind, who delights in his grim office, and keeps
the shades imprisoned in his dominions after withdrawing them from the joys
of existence, now receives them with hospitality and friendship, and Hermes
replaces him as conductor of shades to Hades. Under this new aspect Aides
usurps the functions of a totally different divinity called Plutus (the god
of riches), and is henceforth regarded as the giver of wealth to mankind,
in the shape of those precious metals which lie concealed in the bowels of
the earth.

The later poets mention various entrances to Erebus, which were for the
most part caves and fissures. There was one in the mountain of Taenarum,
another in Thesprotia, and a third, the most celebrated of all, in Italy,
near the pestiferous Lake Avernus, over which it is said no bird could fly,
so noxious were its exhalations.

In the dominions of Aides there were four great rivers, three of which had
to be crossed by all the shades. These three were Acheron (sorrow), Cocytus
(lamentation), and Styx (intense darkness), the sacred stream which flowed
nine times round these realms.

The shades were ferried over the Styx by the grim, unshaven old boatman
Charon, who, however, only took those whose bodies had received funereal
rites on earth, and who had brought with them his indispensable toll, which
was a small coin or obolus, usually placed under the {133} tongue of a dead
person for this purpose. If these conditions had not been fulfilled, the
unhappy shades were left behind to wander up and down the banks for a
hundred years as restless spirits.

On the opposite bank of the Styx was the tribunal of Minos, the supreme
judge, before whom all shades had to appear, and who, after hearing full
confession of their actions whilst on earth, pronounced the sentence of
happiness or misery to which their deeds had entitled them. This tribunal
was guarded by the terrible triple-headed dog Cerberus, who, with his three
necks bristling with snakes, lay at full length on the ground;--a
formidable sentinel, who permitted all shades to enter, but none to return.

The happy spirits, destined to enjoy the delights of Elysium, passed out on
the right, and proceeded to the golden palace where Aides and Persephone
held their royal court, from whom they received a kindly greeting, ere they
set out