Durango semi-weekly herald., 1907-09-02
HADEs NAME OF A GOD,
NOT TORMENT PLACE.

BY william r. Curtis, Correspondent
OF Chicago Record-Iiernld
Boston. Aug. l9.--Professor Thomas
Day Seymour OF Yale university, who
knows all about such things, has dis
covered that Hades Is the name of
person and not of n place, but that
does not relieve sinners from respon-
sDility nor abolish the doctrine of pun
ishment after death. It is simply an
Interesting and important point in
classical literature. just like the dis
covery many years ago that Eldorado
WAS the name OF a man and not 4
gold mining district. The latter term
means "T'he Gilded Man. and was
originally applied by Spanish ex-
plorer to an imaginary kind, who lived
III an imaginary country near the
sources of the Orinoco river and had
an Imaginary palace whose walls were
decorated with silver and whose fur
niture was made of gold. He lived In
such luxury and extravaganza that,
according to the tale, his servants
bathed him in cocoanut oil every morn
ing and splinklcd his body with gold
dust, 10 that he sparkled In the sun.
For that he was called Eldorado-the
gilded-and In time his name was ap'
piled to a mysterious but unknown
country OF fabulous wealth.
Professor Seymour knows moro
about Hades that Sir Walter Raleigh
knew Of EIdorado and doesn't intend
to 20 there: and he gives us much OF
his knowledge In charming book he
has recently written and which the
Macmillan company will soon publish.
It rs called Life in the Homeric Age.
Professor Seymour says that Hades
was, and suppose he still Is, the
son OF Chronos and brother of Zeua
and Poseidon, who divided among
Themselves the kingdom of their ia
ther. The realm of murky darkness
was the share of Hades and he Is sup
posed to be running the government
there still.
Only once in the Had of Homer
does Hades act as n person, however
When the gods are assembled for con
fiict on the Trojan plain and Poseidor
shakes the earth and the mountain
Hades leaps from his throne with :
- F.a hnt ha y ht
torn open and expose his 'Dolorou'
mansions to the peering day" He Is
"impracable and unyielding," aR'
therefore the most hateful of all th'
gods to mortal men.
Professor Seymour says that th'
realm OF Hades, generally speaking
lies beneath the earth, like the me
diaeval hell yet Odysseus, on his visi
to that country. does not descen'
through cavern, but sails to the lan'
OF shades from the Island Of Circe II
a single day. II lies on the borders o
Ocennus, near the country of the Gin
merians, who are wrapped in mist am
clouds and on whom the sun neve
shines. The river which departing
souls must cross to reach Hades /
called the Styx, but its geographical
course Is not indicated by Homer il
any way. Professor Seymour has no
been able to find 1t any place in New
England or elsewhere upon the earth
The ferryman, Charon, Is not men
toned in the Odyssey, nor in the Rive
Lethe. Hercules was sent to fetcl
his dog. Cerberus. ut Odysseus. oi
his visit, sees no gate nor dog. no
even Hades himself.
How the realm of IIades is lighted
Homer does not tell his readers. HI
describes it as gloomy land an'
nixes his former acquaintances, a
though he does not penetrate into tn,
innermost recesses of the place, an,
II is not clear how he got there. A
the opening OF the last book of tn,
Odyssey, Hermes leads the souls o
Penelope's slain suitors "along to th
asphodel plains where dwell the souls
the images of the dead" Professo
Seymour says that the opposition be
tween these Views concerning the stu
alton OF the realm of Hades seem
clear and scholars generally hold t,
different authorship of these differ
ent parts of the Odyssey poems, al
though some would believe that b!
sailing to the far west Odysseus wa
thought to find a horizontal entranc,
to the inner part of the earth.
At the beginning of the second da,
OF the battle at Troy, Zeus warns an,
OF the gods whom he shall see aidin,
either Greeks or Trojans that he will
hurl them into murky Tartarus ia
away. where is the deepest pit be
meath the earth: where are the iroi
gates and the bronze threshold. al
far beneath Hades as Is heaven abov,
the earth" but, Professor Seymour de
clares, that Homer nowhere intimate
that Tartarus is a place of suffering
Its Inhabitants. the Titans, are not II
chains and tho 1ark N hraa1ae oo,