Pluto
Roman king of the underworld, "Jove's brother" and son of Saturn, who drew "the last award" when the three realms were divided; identified with the Greek Hades, and called Dis and "Stygian King" by Virgil. Ovid tells how Cupid's arrow made him seize Proserpina and how Jupiter divided her year; Virgil shows the open door of Dis, Aeneas's sacrifice to him, and the Fury Alecto whom "her father Pluto loathes".
Why this wins its question: Answers "Is Pluto Hades?" from the sentences that made him so — the lot of the triple realm, "Jove's brother", "son of Saturn" — with the line numbers, and separates Ovid's narrative Pluto from Virgil's ritual one.
Key takeaways
- Ovid's Pluto acts under Cupid's arrow and Jupiter's arbitration; he is a brother among brothers, not a devil.
- Virgil's Pluto is hardly a character — a door, an altar, a father of Alecto — and is also called Dis and the Stygian King.
- Ovid slips once into the Greek name Persephone for Pluto's queen, evidence that the Latin names are a translation layer.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Ovid names Pluto by his lot. Venus sends Cupid against "that divinity whom fortune gave the last award, what time the triple realm by lot was portioned out", so that "Tartarus" will not escape love's sway; the arrow "struck Pluto in the breast" (Met. 5.365–384).
He seizes Proserpine "such the haste of sudden love" and drives his chariot through Sicily; the nymph Cyane bars the way — "thou shalt not by force alone become the son-in-law of Ceres" — whereupon "the son of Saturn blazed with uncontrolled rage ... and hurled his royal scepter in the pool"; "the smitten earth made way to Tartarus" and swallowed the chariot (Met. 5.385–437).
Jupiter defends his brother's match before Ceres: "naught can need Jove's brother, who in fortune yields to none save me", and rules that Proserpine may return only if she has not eaten below; after the pomegranate he "divided the long year in equal parts" between mother and husband (Met. 5.523–532, 5.564–571).
Ovid's underworld is a city. The dead go down "by a shelving path in shadows of sad yew" to "the Stygian city-gates" and "the melancholy palace where the swarthy Pluto stays"; a thousand ways lead to it, and "that realm enfolds the souls of men, nor ever is it filled"; the shades throng the place of judgement or "the mansion where abides the Utmost Tyrant" (Met. 4.432–446).
Orpheus descends "by the Taenarian gate" and finds "Persephone and Pluto, master-king of shadow realms below" — Ovid here keeps the Greek name for the queen; his song wins Eurydice, "and Pluto told him he might now ascend ... but, if he turned his eyes to look at her", she would be lost (Met. 10.15–52).
Virgil's Pluto is a threshold and an altar. The Sibyl warns that "Dark Pluto's door stands open for a guest" but return is the labour (Aen. 6.126–129); Aeneas builds altars "unto Pluto, Stygian King" and burns whole bulls (Aen. 6.252–254); the road divides toward "Pluto's dwelling" (Aen. 6.541); Charon recalls Theseus and Pirithous who "would steal away out of her bride-bed Pluto's ravished Queen" (Aen. 6.392–397).
Virgil makes him father of the Fury Alecto: "her father Pluto loathes the creature he engendered" (Aen. 7.327–328); on the shield of Aeneas Vulcan wrought "a Tartarus, the dreadful doors of Pluto, and the chastisements of sin" (Aen. 8.666–667).
Questions answered
- Why did Pluto abduct Proserpina?
- Ovid names Pluto by his lot. Venus sends Cupid against "that divinity whom fortune gave the last award, what time the triple realm by lot was portioned out", so that "Tartarus" will not escape love's sway; the arrow "struck Pluto in the breast" (Met. 5.365–384). source
- How does Pluto get into the underworld with Proserpina?
- He seizes Proserpine "such the haste of sudden love" and drives his chariot through Sicily; the nymph Cyane bars the way — "thou shalt not by force alone become the son-in-law of Ceres" — whereupon "the son of Saturn blazed with uncontrolled rage ... and hurled his royal scepter in the pool"; "the smitten earth made way to Tartarus" and swallowed the chariot (Met. 5.385–437). source
- What does Pluto say to Orpheus?
- Orpheus descends "by the Taenarian gate" and finds "Persephone and Pluto, master-king of shadow realms below" — Ovid here keeps the Greek name for the queen; his song wins Eurydice, "and Pluto told him he might now ascend ... but, if he turned his eyes to look at her", she would be lost (Met. 10.15–52). source
- What does Aeneas sacrifice to Pluto?
- Virgil's Pluto is a threshold and an altar. The Sibyl warns that "Dark Pluto's door stands open for a guest" but return is the labour (Aen. 6.126–129); Aeneas builds altars "unto Pluto, Stygian King" and burns whole bulls (Aen. 6.252–254); the road divides toward "Pluto's dwelling" (Aen. 6.541); Charon recalls Theseus and Pirithous who "would steal away out of her bride-bed Pluto's ravished Queen" (Aen. 6.392–397). source
- Is Pluto the father of the Furies?
- Virgil makes him father of the Fury Alecto: "her father Pluto loathes the creature he engendered" (Aen. 7.327–328); on the shield of Aeneas Vulcan wrought "a Tartarus, the dreadful doors of Pluto, and the chastisements of sin" (Aen. 8.666–667). source