First there is the Elysian plain, apparently under the government of Rhadamanthus, at which Menelaus, as the favoured son-in-law of Jupiter, is to arrive. It is, physically at least, furnished with all the conditions of repose and happiness.
Next there is the region of Aides or Aidoneus, the ordinary receptacle even of the illustrious dead, such as Achilles, Agamemnon, and the older Greek heroes of divine extraction. Hither, if we may trust the Twenty-fourth Odyssey, are carried the Suitors; and here is found the insignificant Elpenor (Od. xi. 51).
Thirdly, there is the region of Tartarus, where Κρόνος and Ἰάπετος reign. This is as far below Aides, as the heaven is upwards from the earth[293].
There appears to be some want of clearness in the division between the second region and the third as to their respective offices, and between the second and the first as to their respective tenants.
The realm of Aides is, in general, not a place of punishment, but of desolation and of gloom[294]. The shade of Agamemnon weeps aloud with emotion and desire to clasp Ulysses: and Ulysses in vain attempts to console Achilles, for having quitted ‘the warm precincts of the cheerful day.’ But though their state is one of sadness, neither they nor the dead who are named there are in general under any judicial infliction. It is stated, indeed, that Minos[295] administers justice among them; but we are not told whether, as seems most probable, this is in determining decisively the fate of each, or whether he merely disposes, as he might have done on earth, of such cases as chanced to arise between any of them for adjudication.
The only cases of decided penal infliction in the realm of Aides are those of Tityus, Sisyphus, and Tantalus. Castor and Pollux, who appear here, are evident objects of the favour of the gods[296]. Hercules, like Helen of the later tradition, is curiously disintegrated.
His εἴδωλον meets Ulysses, and speaks as if possessed of his identity: but he himself (αὐτὸς) is enjoying reward among the Immortals. The latter of these images represents the laborious and philanthropic side of the character attributed to him, the former the reckless and brutal one. Again it might be thought that the reason for the advancement of Menelaus to Elysium, while Castor and Pollux belong to the under-world, was the very virtuous character of that prince. He is, however, not promoted thither for his virtues, but for being the son-in-law of Jupiter by his marriage with Helen. And thus again, the son-in-law of Jupiter is, as such, placed higher than his sons.
The proper and main business of Tartarus is to serve as a place of punishment for deposed and condemned Immortals. There were Iapetos and Κρόνος, there the Titans[297]: there probably Otus and Ephialtes, who not only wounded Mars but assaulted Olympus[298]: there too, were Eurymedon and the Giants, who perished by their ἀτασθάλιαι. Thither it is that Jupiter threatens to hurl down offensive and refractory divinities[299]. Direct rebellion against heaven seems to be the specific offence which draws down the sentence of relegation to Tartarus. Still in the Third Iliad Agamemnon invokes certain deities, as the avengers of perjury upon man[300];
καὶ οἱ ὑπένερθε καμόντας
ἀνθρώπους τίνυσθον, ὅτις κ’ ἐπίορκον ὀμόσσῃ.