The gate of the year

Figure on the left:

Clay votive plaque (pinax) representing Hades and Persephone on their throne, from Locri, Italy, dating to the V century B.C., now in the National Museum (Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia), Reggio Calabria, Italy. Hades and Persephone are the rulers of the World of the Dead. As the husband of Persephone, who was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of crops and harvests, Hades too was associated with fertility and abundance symbols, as for example the ears of wheat and the branches with foliage and flowers which both the deities hold in their hands in the picture. At the foot of the throne and in the lap of the goddess appear two cocks, an animal associated with the passage from night to day, and thus from life to death and vice versa, and which had, until the Middle Ages, a relationship with the figure of the Fool, who was related both to the dead (his senselessness) and to fertility.

[Source: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinax]

Figure on the right:

Painting on the bottom of a red-figure cup (kylix) of Attic production, discovered at Vulci, Italy, and dating to about 440-430 B.C., now in the British Museum, London. The image shows Persephone, sitting next to Hades, who holds a cornucopia in his hand. The god is represented as Pluto (Greek Plouton), meaning “wealth-giver”, an epithet which ended up to design Hades himself and became his Latin name. In the literary sources, it is frequently confused with the god Plutus (Greek Ploutos), regarded as Demeter’s son, god of riches, who originally meant the wealth of corn and was the patron of prosperity. The earth was regarded as the origin of life and source of the generative force from which the agricultural production depended, and consequently the well-being of the entire community. That is why the subterranean god, ruler of the World of the Dead, could assume the functions of dispenser of goods, symbolized by the horn of plenty.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades]




World of the Dead

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Figure on the left: Clay votive plaque (pinax) representing Hades and Persephone on their throne, from Locri, Italy, dating to the V century B.C., now in the National Museum (Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia), Reggio Calabria, Italy. Hades and Persephone are the rulers of the World of the Dead. As the husband of Persephone, who was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of crops and harvests, Hades too was associated with fertility and abundance symbols, as for example the ears of wheat and the branches with foliage and flowers which both the deities hold in their hands in the picture. At the foot of the throne and in the lap of the goddess appear two cocks, an animal associated with the passage from night to day, and thus from life to death and vice versa, and which had, until the Middle Ages, a relationship with the figure of the Fool, who was related both to the dead (his senselessness) and to fertility. [Source: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinax] Figure on the right: Painting on the bottom of a red-figure cup (kylix) of Attic production, discovered at Vulci, Italy, and dating to about 440-430 B.C., now in the British Museum, London. The image shows Persephone, sitting next to Hades, who holds a cornucopia in his hand. The god is represented as Pluto (Greek Plouton), meaning “wealth-giver”, an epithet which ended up to design Hades himself and became his Latin name. In the literary sources, it is frequently confused with the god Plutus (Greek Ploutos), regarded as Demeter’s son, god of riches, who originally meant the wealth of corn and was the patron of prosperity. The earth was regarded as the origin of life and source of the generative force from which the agricultural production depended, and consequently the well-being of the entire community. That is why the subterranean god, ruler of the World of the Dead, could assume the functions of dispenser of goods, symbolized by the horn of plenty. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades]