The kingdom of the dead was ruled by one of the twelve great Olympians, Hades, and his Queen, Persephone. It is often called by his name, Hades. It lies beneath the secret places of the Earth, or at the edge of the world, far over Ocean. Hades could also be found through caverns and beside deep lakes. The underworld was sometimes split into two regions:

Tartarus:  The deeper of the two underworld regions, it is the prison of the Sons of the Earth.

Erebus:    The place where the dead pass as soon as they die.

But often there is little or no disinction between the two, and either is used, especially Tartarus, as a name for the entire lower region of the underworld. Homer states that the underworld is a vague, shadowy place inhabited by shadows. Nothing is real there. The ghosts' existence, if it can be called that, is like a miserable dream. The path to the underworld has been described as the one that leads down to the river of woes, Acheron, where it pours into the river of lamentation, Cocytus. An aged boatman, Charon ferries the souls of the dead across the water to the other side, where stands the adamantine gate to Tartarus. Charon will receive into his boat, only the souls of those upon whose lips the passage money was placed when they died and who were duly buried.

Cerberus:   The three-headed, dragon-tailed dog who guards the gates to Tartarus, will permit all of the spirits to enter, but none to leave. On the arrival of each spirit, it is brought before three judges, Rhadamanthus, Minos and Aeacus, who pass sentence and send the wicked to everlasting tourment and the good to a place of blessedness called the Elysian Fields.

Three other rivers, besides Acheron and Cocytus, separate the underworld from the world above; Phlegethon, the river of fire, Styx, the river of the unbreakable oath by which the gods swear and Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. Somewhere in this vast region, is the palace of Hades, many gated and crowded with innumerable guests. Around the palace are wide wastes, baron and cold, meadows of asphodel, presumably strange, pallid, ghostly flowers.

The Erinyes:   The Erinyes, or Furies were the punishers of the evildoers, their role was to persue the sinners of Earth. They were inexorable, but just.

Sleep, and Death:   Hypnos, and Thanatos his brother, were responsible for giving man on earth their dreams. they passed through two gates, one of horn, through which true dreams went, and one of ivory, where false dreams went.