Macaria

* Hades (Father)
* Persephone (Mother)

* Adonis
* Lysander Graves
* Nico di Angelo
* Zagreus

**Adopted Sisters**

* {Bianca di Angelo}
* Hazel Levesque
* Melinoë

**Macaria** is the Goddess of Blessed Death from Greco-Roman mythology. She is the adopted daughter of Hades and Persephone, and ruler of the Isles of the Blessed within the Greco-Roman Underworld.

## Overview

### Goddess

A goddess **Macaria** (μακαρία) is named in the Suda. This according to the Suda, this Macaria is the daughter of Hades (no mother is mentioned). She seems to have embodied a blessed death; the Suda connects her name to the figure of speech "be gone to blessedness," instead of misery or damnation, which may be euphemistic, in the way that the dead are referred to as "the blessed ones." The phrase was proverbial for those whose courage endangered them.

### Daughter of Heracles

In the Heracleidae of Euripides, Macaria is a daughter of Heracles. Even after Heracles' death, King Eurystheus pursues his lifelong vendetta against the hero by hunting down his children. Macaria flees with her siblings and her father's old friend Iolaus to Athens, where they are received by Demophon, the king.

Arriving at the gates of Athens with his army, Eurystheus gives Demophon an ultimatum, threatening war upon Athens unless Demophon surrenders Heracles's children. When Demophon refuses and begins to prepare for war, an oracle informs him that Athens will be victorious only if a noble maiden is sacrificed to Persephone.

Upon hearing this, Macaria sees that her only choice is immediate death on the altar or eventual death at the hands of Eurystheus. Since in neither case will she be granted a normal, happy life, she offers herself as the victim to save the welcoming city and its inhabitants, declining a lottery that would put other girls at risk.

The Athenians honored her with lavish funeral rites, and the myth has an aetiological aspect: the spring where she died was named the Macarian in her honor.

## Appearance

Macaria appears as a fair-skinned girl, with droopy purple-colored eyes and long wavy hair falling down to her waist, which she often styled into an intricate braid. She is generally described as a "gothic beauty, straight out of a macabre fairy-tale."

She only wears black clothes: She likes chic, elegant black dresses, veils, and silken capes which drag behind her like a black waterfall. Her fingernails are also painted black. According to her, she likes black clothing because she feels comfortable in it.

## Personality

Macaria is a natural loner who seems to detest any kind of unnecessary social interactions. She has an aloof, mysterious, and quiet aura, which creates an image of a cold and stoic goddess who rarely shows any emotion, whose monotone voice displays a feeling of superiority.

While polite and well-mannered, she is blunt and isn't afraid to confront people head-on, asking people of sensitive questions most people wouldn't ask because of politeness. She doesn't care about assumptions and rumors around her, because she knows she has people who cherish her for who she is.

Only in private does she reveal her true nature, which is the opposite of what many believe her to be. She is incredibly lazy and prefers to slack off instead of doing her divine duties, which led to her being made the ruler of the Isles of the Blessed by Hades due to the little amount of duties it entails. She is also stated to be a pacifist, who prefers peaceful negotiations than combat, but won't hesistate to fight if needed.

## History

### Early Life

Macaria was born the youngest child of Heracles and his last human wife, Deïanira, and was the little sister of Hyllus, Glenus, Onites, and Ctesippus. As a young child, she was adored by everyone around her but her father, who she had never seen before because of his continuous adventures, and thus, she saw her cousin, Iolaus, as a father figure.

### The Heracleidae

When Heracles died and Deïanira killed herself out of guilt, she and her family were hunted down by Eurystheus who had a vendetta against their father. Because of this, they were forced to seek refuge in Athens under King Demophon's protections.

When Eurystheus' armies arrived, Demophon prepared to lead his own armies into the battle but was stopped by an oracle who said that only when a maiden of noble birth was sacrificed to Persephone would the war end in the Athenians' favors. Because of that, he felt hesitated as he could force his own people to do it and asked the Heraclids to seek refuge somewhere else.

Distressed, Macaria pleaded to Demophon to be the sacrifice, much to her brothers' refusals, which Demophon allowed and she was killed on the altar of Zeus' temple at Athens. Furious at their sister's death, her brothers ignored the Athenians' protests and charged head-first into Eurystheus' armies with the intention of avenging their sister.

Supporting them in their battle was Iolaus, whose youth was restored by Hebe - Heracles' new divine wife, and Athena, who blessed them with her divinity as a gift to one of her favorite demigod brothers. Because of this, they were able to massacre the entire armies and capture Eurystheus, who was then executed and his soul bound to the boundary of Athens for eternity under Alcmene's orders.

To honor Macaria's sacrifice, King Demophon held lavish funeral rites for her and the spring when she died became known as the Macarian spring, or the "blessed spring", where young women would burn sacrifices for her and ask her for blessings from the Underworld.

### The Underworld

When Macaria died, she was adopted by Hades and Persephone and gained immortality as the result, becoming the goddess who governs over the blessed dead, or those who died of ritualistic/religious purposes. Hades later gifted her with the Isles of the Blessed, a group of islands in Elysium where only the most virtuous spirits who gained the chance of Elysium three times would be allowed to enter.

## Equipment

**Death Scythe** (死神の鎌デス・サイズ, *Desu Saizu*): As a Goddess who holds the position of Grim Reaper and commands her own legions of reapers, Macaria wields her own Dead Scythe made of Stygian Iron and Imperial Gold. However, according to Horkos, she is the least skilled among her siblings when it comes to physical combat, preferring to fight with magic means instead.

## Trivia

* The tale of her death was recorded in the form of the play, Heracleidae by Euripides.
* She and Heracles haven't talked or interacted even once since her death/apotheosis.
	+ It's implied that he doesn't even know that she's, technically, alive as a chthonic goddess.
* Due to her secluded nature, her only mythological mention is in the Suda.
* She is considered the female and more merciful version of Thanatos.
* While her domain originally included only those who died for a ritualistic/religious cause (i.e. martyrs), she is also tasked with collecting the souls of those who died a glorious, bountiful, or honorable death.
	+ Because of this, she is very close to the valkyries and their bosses (Odin, Vidarr, and Freya) and is considered an unofficial-ambassador to the Norse pantheon.