Pluto's Kingdom.
"Down to the inmost core of this our mother Earth,
To the sad realm of shades, where Pluto sits enthroned,
In gloomy majesty, grim King of Death;
And Phlegethontic rills roll waves of lurid fire—
There will I lead, an thou wilt follow me."
They were brethren three, sons of Old Time, who shared among them the dominion of the world. Jupiter, the eldest of them, assumed the supreme rule of heaven and earth; to Neptune was given the empire of the sea; Pluto had assigned to his sway the interior of the earth—the realm of death.
The name of Pluto is taken from a Greek word signifying wealth, and was therefore most appropriately given to the master of all the hidden treasures of the earth. The Latins called the king of the infernum, Dis—i.e., Dives, the wealthy.
The gate to the dominions of Pluto was guarded by the many-headed dog Cerberus.[1] To get there
- ↑ Three heads only and three necks are generally given to this marvellous beast; Hesiod, however, the second father of most of those creatures of the imagination, yclept the gods of Greece, gives Cerberus fifty heads; whilst Horace, more bountiful still, supplies him with a hundred of these useful appendages.
