Every God of the Greek Underworld Explained in 12 Minutes

Every God of the Greek Underworld Explained in 12 Minutes Hades is the king of the dead, but here is the first thing most people get wrong about him — he did not choose this. After the Olympians defeated the Titans, the three brothers, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, drew lots to divide the universe between them. Zeus won the sky. Poseidon won the sea. Hades got everything below. He ruled not out of ambition but out of chance, and once he was down there, he almost never left. His presence on the surface was considered such a bad omen that Greeks went out of their way to avoid even saying his name, calling him Plouton instead, meaning "the rich one," because all precious metals and minerals rise from underground. He was not the god of death in the sense of killing — that job belonged to others.