All language subtitles for Clash.of.the.Gods.S01E03.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-deadorbit_track3_[eng]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: This is
the land of the dead,

and this is its master.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hades, a god so feared no
one would speak his name.

His myth reveals how the
ancient Greeks viewed death.

It is a chilling vision of the
one fate no mortal can escape,

and it has eerie links to the
real ancient world, curses,

ghosts, and secret cults.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Prepare to descend
into the underworld

and experience the story
as the ancients heard it.

This is the truth behind
the myth of Hades.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In a lush green pasture,
a beautiful young woman

picks flowers.

Her name is Persephone
and she is being watched.

RENAUD GAGNE: In Greek
mythology, when a young maiden

is plucking flowers
in the meadow,

something bad is
about to happen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[RUMBLING]

NARRATOR: Suddenly,
the ground breaks open.

An unseen hand reaches
up from the darkness

and drags her down
into the underworld.

[SCREAMS]

Hades, god of the dead,
has chosen his queen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hades is mythology's
warden of death.

He commands the vast
and frightening realm

that all mortals, good and
bad, must enter when they die.

It is his job to make
sure they never escape.

DAVID GEORGE: He is the god
of the dead, and none of us

want to die.

He is to be feared.

His power is awesome.

NARRATOR: The Greeks
wanted nothing

to do with Hades because
to know him is to be dead.

PETER STRUCK: The Greeks tended
not to depict or represent

Hades.

There are not
temples built to him.

He's someone that has
kept at arm's length

like a kind of uncle who is
business you're not sure about

and don't want to
talk about too much.

The main idea is that for
the ancient Greeks to be dead

is not a very good thing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: The myth of Hades was
created to make sense of what

happens after we die.

DAVID GEORGE: These stories
reflect human yearning

to hold on.

We can see in them how the
Greeks thought about death,

what their hopes and
fears were about death.

A lot of religious
traditions try and supply

a way in which your existence
can continue in the next world,

and Greek religious
traditions are no different.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: According to
the myth, dead souls

enter a vast and
gloomy underworld.

A realm named after
its master, Hades.

It is the ancient Greek
equivalent of Heaven, Hell,

and Limbo, all under one roof.

KRISTINA MILNOR: We in
a Christian context,

think that what happens to you
after death has to do with what

you've done here on Earth.

If you've been a good person,
then you go to Heaven.

If you've been a bad
person, you go to Hell.

For the Greeks,
actually, those places

were all located in one place.

They were all the underworld.

SARAH JOHNSTON: It's the
one place we can't ever see.

We can make up stories about
what might be going on there,

the great punishments
that are occurring

or the terrible things
that might be happening,

but we never know.

And so, we continue to wonder.

NARRATOR: In the myth, there
are three levels of Hades.

Most of the dead
descend to the fields

of Asphodel, the dreary resting
place of the nameless masses.

PETER STRUCK: The fate
of the average person

in the underworld is just
to have to wander around

a gray shade and live not very
exciting or interesting life.

It's a kind of sad place to be.

With sort of like the-- the
Catholic conception of Limbo,

a sort of twilight place,
quiet and peaceful,

but full of mourning trees,
where the soul would simply

wandering aimlessly.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: And then, there is the
place reserved for those who've

most offended the gods.

[GROWLS]

A vast abyss 40,000 miles deep.

A dungeon of suffering
and eternal torment

surrounded by a flaming river.

This is Tartarus.

KRISTINA MILNOR: The
souls of very bad people

would be sent to Tartarus,
which is quite like our--

the Christian
conception of Hell.

NARRATOR: In fact, Tartarus
was so closely linked with Hell

by the early Christians that it
was even mentioned in the New

Testament.

DENNIS MACDONALD: It
appears in a verbal form

in 2 Peter having to do
with people being thrown

into Tartarus.

And then, there were a few
who were terribly wicked who

were punished in Tartarus.

And that I think is the
origin of what Christians

know as Hell.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: For the
fortunate few, paradise

awaits in the third
realm of Hades,

the Islands of the Blessed,
the ancient Greek equivalent

of Heaven.

RENAUD GAGNE: Everything
grows by itself

and you can eat your
fill with no work.

There is absolutely no work.

There is constant rejoicing.

There around dances,
there are streams,

and there is pure friendship.

KRISTINA MILNOR: That was where
famous and glorious people

would spend the
rest of their lives.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: In the myth, all
human beings must eventually

succumb to Hades command.

For some, that day
comes far too soon.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hades has kidnapped a young
maiden name Persephone.

He holds her captive
in the underworld.

PETER STRUCK: Hades has
taken her away to his realm

to be his wife forever.

NARRATOR: But Persephone
is not forgotten.

In the world above, her powerful
mother is searching for her.

She is Demeter,
goddess of the harvest.

The woman who feeds the world.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

RENAUD GAGNE: This
is one myth that

defines one of the most central
aspects of the universe.

Demeter is able to
destroy humankind.

She can rip the world apart.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: The ancient
Greeks believed

Demeter was responsible for
the changing of the seasons,

and that Persephone's
disappearance started

the cycle.

KRISTINA MILNOR:
She didn't know what

had happened to her daughter,
so she wandered the Earth.

And in her grief, at the
loss of her daughter,

she forgot to give
fertility to the land.

So plants withered and
died, human beings no longer

gave birth, the Earth descended
into the deepest, deepest

of winters.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Faced with the
prospect of an endless frost,

the other gods command
Hades to return Persephone.

But Hades has a plan.

DAVID GEORGE: Hades knew that
if he could get her to eat food

belonging to the underneath,
that she would then become part

of the underneath.

NARRATOR: He offers Persephone
a snack of pomegranate seeds.

She naively accepts
and seals her fate.

It is a mistake for which
the entire planet will pay.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

She must now spend three
months of every year

in the underworld, one month
for every seed she ate.

The rest of the year, she
can spend with her mother.

KRISTINA MILNOR: When Persephone
is down in the underworld,

Demeter doesn't give Earth
the fertility that it needs,

and that is what the Greeks
understood as winter.

When Persephone
returns to her mother,

Demeter rejoices,
and that's what

we have as spring and summer.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: The ancient Greeks
believed Persephone had

traveled to and from the
underworld with each change

of seasons.

But how did she get there?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The answer lies in a cave
near the Greek town of Eleusis

just northwest of Athens.

To the ancients, this
wasn't just a cave.

It was a portal of death.

MICHAEL COSMOPOULOS:
According to the myth,

Demeter met with her daughter,
Persephone, right here.

Persephone came out from the
underworld through this cave.

NARRATOR: A boundary between
the land of the living

and the land of the dead and
between real life and myth.

But this wasn't the
only passage into Hades.

SARAH JOHNSTON: There
were lots of entrances

to the underworld
in ancient Greece.

In fact, it was sort of
a competing industry.

It was a little bit like the
way that Americans used to say

George Washington slept here.

Every locale wanted to be able
to say we have an entrance

to the underworld.

NARRATOR: This was a
place of great importance

to the ancient Greeks.

In fact, experts determined
that the ruins found

near the cave entrance were
the remains of a temple.

Among the artifacts discovered
there was a stone relief

with an inscription
reading simply,

"To the god and goddess".

It was a dedication to a god
who couldn't be called by name,

a shrine to the angel
of death himself, Hades.

DAVID GEORGE: You need to
remember that temples to Hades

are not come.

Because of who he is
and what his worship is,

there are many reasons
to build temples.

In fact, the way you
would get his attention

is you would smash on the
ground and say, hey, Hades.

So the fact that there's
a temple like Eleusis

is just striking.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: It was here at Eleusis
that ancient Greece's largest

religious cult met to worship.

A secret society
obsessed with death.

DAVID GEORGE: We know
historical personages

who would go there and stay
and go through the initiation.

Plato, Cicero, Socrates, that
tells you the importance of it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Surviving texts reveal
that the cult members came here

in search of a shortcut
to paradise, a path

to eternal bliss in
the realm of Hades.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PETER STRUCK: Cults
would give you

the information you needed to
find your way to the Islands

of the Blessed.

You lived it out in relative
splendor with great abundance

of food, and parties, and wine.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Experts believe
the cult at Eleusis

may have influenced another
religion that promises life

after death, Christianity.

MICHAEL COSMOPOULOS: We
know that the cult helped

to liberate people
from the fear of death

and very interesting preparing
the ground for Christianity.

It's sowed the seeds of a
universal cult that revolved

around the defeat of death.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: To the ancient Greeks,
this was the face of death.

In the myth, Hades is a
merciless master of souls.

But he was not always this way.

He has undergone a
dramatic transformation

from forgotten
child to feared god.

In fact, he was cursed
from the moment of birth

when he was eaten alive
by his own father.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hades is the ancient Greek
god of the underworld.

A dark Lord who
controls all dead souls.

But he wasn't
always so menacing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[BABY CRYING]

In the palace of the
gods, a baby's cries

pierced the silence.

A newborn son.

His name is Hades.

His father is Cronus, the
King of Greece's ruling gods,

The Titans.

Cronus was told in a prophecy
that one of his children

would murder him and he
is determined to make sure

that doesn't happen.

The father fears being
replaced by the son.

That's human psychology.

Cronus's solution to the
problem was eat your kids.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[INAUDIBLE]

NARRATOR: In one
swift motion, Cronus

consumes his newborn son.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

KRISTINA MILNOR:
Infanticide wasn't really

common in ancient Greece.

So the idea of a father
actually deliberately trying

to kill his children would have
been very shocking to them.

PETER STRUCK: Now, of course,
since they're immortal,

the children that Cronus
swallows are not dead.

They are just locked
away inside of his belly.

NARRATOR: Hades and
most of his siblings

grow up inside their
father's stomach.

But one child was able
to escape Cronus's wrath.

His name is Zeus.

[LIGHTNING STRIKES]

He returns as a grown god and
frees his trapped brothers

and sisters.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The siblings now unite
to form the Olympians

and seize control of the
universe from their parents

in a final clash
with the Titans.

[GROWLS]

[LIGHTNING STRIKING]

PETER STRUCK: After the
overthrow of the Titans,

the Olympians have the job of
trying to figure out now who

does what in this new order.

NARRATOR: Hades, Poseidon, and
Zeus, the three male Olympians,

agree to divide the
spoils of conquest.

It is a defining
moment for Hades,

one that will forever
determine the power

structure of the gods.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hades is the oldest child.

And according to the real
Greek law of the time,

that gives him an advantage.

DAVID GEORGE: Throughout
most of the Greek world,

the law of primogeniture
was the practice, which

means the oldest born,
who should be Hades,

should have by right
inherited the largest share.

[LIGHTNING STRIKES]

NARRATOR: But Zeus,
the youngest brother,

has his own ambitions
to rule the world.

It is a clash between Zeus's
ambition and Hades birthright.

The brothers decide
to draw lots.

Whoever wins the heavens will
become the king of the gods.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In ancient Greek custom,
the drawing of lots

was a typical procedure
used to divide things up

that were otherwise very
difficult to discern.

And everybody would
have recognized

that the drawing of lots
was a legitimate way

to make a tough call like this.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: The gods draw.

Poseidon claims the seas.

Zeus claims the
heavens, thus becoming

mythology's supreme commander.

And Hades draws the short straw.

He is left with the
land of the dead.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID GEORGE: This was not
something he chose for himself.

It was fated him.

He did it.

But it bent him in some ways.

It made him not a happy god.

NARRATOR: It is a tragic
turning point for Hades.

He could have
ruled the universe.

Instead, he is condemned
to the realm of the dead.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

IOANNIS MYLONOPOULOS:
In ancient Greece,

the attitudes
towards death was not

so different to our feelings
today towards death.

So people would not
worship Hades as much

as they did Poseidon and Zeus.

Other gods do not come
to see him because death

is hateful to the gods.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Hades new home
is dark, bleak, and filled

with the sadness
of dead soldiers.

[GROWLS]

Ancient texts describe
it as a dank expanse

of caves and rivers.

DAVID GEORGE: It is a place
that is dark and gloomy.

Its rivers are full of mist.

It has the stench of decay.

It's a very forbidding place.

It's a place where if you go,
you do not come back from.

NARRATOR: So goes the myth, but
could it be based on reality?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

This is Diros, a
network of caves that

runs for miles beneath Greece.

It's a maze of
rivers and caverns

match the ancient descriptions
of Hades perfectly.

SARAH JOHNSTON: Caves
functioned as in between spaces.

They were clearly understood
to be potential points

of transition between the
upper world and the underworld.

DAVID GEORGE: Caves
are exceedingly

important throughout
the Greek world

because the first humans who
lived there, lived in caves.

Even after they move out and
start building and practicing

agriculture, these caves retain
their sacred significance.

IOANNIS MYLONOPOULOS:
The experience

of entering and being
in such a gloomy place

definitely affected the
imagination of Greeks

and their construction of
what's Hades in the underworld

must have looked like.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[GROWLING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: The ancient
Greeks were terrified

of Hades and his morbid realm.

But they were even more
afraid of the dead souls

who were denied access to it.

According to the myth, these
rejected spirits would return

to haunt the living, ghosts.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

According to Greek
myth, the god, Hades,

rules are dark and
dark universe--

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[YELLS]

The underworld of the dead.

DAVID GEORGE: It begins to
metamorphosis the afterlife

into a kingdom.

And the function of any just
monarch is to punish the wicked

and to reward the good.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Hades assembles
a gang of enforcers

to watch over his dead souls--

[GROWLS]

Cerberus, a ferocious three
headed guard dog, the 100

handers, prison
guards of Tartarus,

and the principal
henchmen of Hades, Charon.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

He patrols the River Styx,
the waterway of hate.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PETER STRUCK: Charon has
a job of ferrying souls

from one side of the world,
that is the world of the living,

to the other side of
the River Styx, which

is the world of the
underworld proper

or the world of the dead.

DAVID GEORGE: He's a
skeletal figure, very demonic

and shadowy.

He in essence is the border
between life and death.

He's decay.

In terms of popular culture, he
comes down as the grim reaper.

He comes down as the one
who will point his finger

and take you.

NARRATOR: There is no way into
Hades except through Charon.

And no one can cross
the river Styx for free.

Every dead soul must
offer a coin for passage.

KRISTINA MILNOR: If the
soul doesn't have that money

to pay the ferryman, it
wanders forever unable to rest

on the shore of the Styx.

This is why ancient
Greeks would place a coin

either under the tongue or
on the eyelids of the corpse

of the dead person.

NARRATOR: This
ritual was essential

to the ancient Greeks.

If the coin wasn't
placed, the deceased

would never find peace.

DAVID GEORGE: There is no doubt
that the ancients took this

seriously.

Many states had laws that
punished people who did not

fulfill their duty
to bury the dead.

The family had obligations to
make sure that the dead were

cut off from this world
and sent to the next

because if they didn't, the dead
would be ghosts in this world.

And that affected everyone.

RENAUD GAGNE: The
dead could come back

to haunt, ask for something,
cry, complain, hurt, destroy.

All of these ideas are found
from the earliest sources

we have until now.

NARRATOR: This is the myth,
but what is the evidence.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The Greeks left behind a
clue about their belief

in ghosts, ancient voodoo dolls.

Archaeologists excavating
graves in Greece

have discovered the tiny lead
figurines with their hands

and feet bound together.

And they are all enclosed
in small coffins etched

with curses.

SARAH JOHNSTON:
Inscribed on these

are magical spells that
are intended to call up

the dead and the gods
in charge of the dead

to basically torture people
who are still living.

If you were competing
in a boxing match,

you might ask the
dead to restrain

the arm of your opponent.

Another realm in which they were
frequently used is business.

So if you are a leather tanner
and the other leather Tanner.

Down the street is
doing better business,

you ask the dad to somehow
screw up his business.

NARRATOR: These
voodoo dolls were

placed in the graves of those
who most likely never made it

to Hades.

They were known as
the restless dead.

SARAH JOHNSTON: People
who had died too young,

people who had died violently,
for example, by being murdered,

or people who had not
received proper burial.

These ghosts could not
get into the underworld.

And so, these ghosts
were restless,

and unhappy, and angry.

And it would be easier
to get one of them

to do something nasty for you.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Those souls who did
make it into the underworld

were locked away for good.

Hades punishment for
any who tried to leave

would be relentless.

But that didn't stop
some from trying.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

An old, weakened
man stands wearily

at the bottom of a mountain.

Sweat streams down his face.

Veins explode from his skin.

His name is Sisyphus and he is
the first soul who ever dared

to defy the will of Hades.

Just before his
life on Earth ended,

Sisyphus made plans
to cheat death.

PETER STRUCK: Sisyphus
says to his wife,

please, don't bury me.

He knows that if his
wife doesn't bury him,

he won't go all the way through
to the other side of Hades.

He'll be stuck in this
kind of no man's land.

RENAUD GAGNE: Who has not
imagined tricking death?

Sisyphus through his rhetorical
art, through his intelligence,

through his sheer wit he is able
to convince the god of death

or to find a way out of Hell.

NARRATOR: Sisyphus
knew better than to try

deceiving the king of the dead.

Instead, he went to the queen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

KRISTINA MILNOR: Sisyphus
complained to Persephone,

the queen of the underworld,
that his wife had

done this terrible thing.

How could she possibly
have treated his body

in such a terrible way.

Persephone felt sympathetic
and felt angry with the wife,

and gave Sisyphus
permission to go back up

to the world above in
order to scold his wife.

Of course, once Sisyphus
is back in the world above,

he has no intention
of returning to Hades.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Sisyphus has
done the impossible.

He has tricked death and turned
the natural cycle of life

on its head.

But the lord of the underworld
will have his revenge.

No one cheats Hades and
lives to tell about it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hades, the god of the
dead, releases no one.

But a soul named Sisyphus has
slipped through his grasp.

When Hades finds out he has
been deceived, he is furious.

He immediately drags Sisyphus
back to the underworld.

DAVID GEORGE: Sisyphus thought
that he could outwit the gods,

that he could outwit death,
that he could outwit nature.

NARRATOR: To the ancient Greeks,
such an attitude was dangerous.

Any soul who tried to cheat
death was a threat to society.

DAVID GEORGE: Greeks believe
that when someone died,

they needed to be put in
their place and kept there.

The assumption there was that
the dead were seeking life

from the living and
draining them of life.

If the dead were always present,
they'd suck your life out.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: In the
myth, the punishment

for trying to cheat death
is painful and permanent.

Hades condemns Sisyphus to
the Hell of the ancient world,

Tartarus.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There in the
scorching heat, he is

forced to push a huge
boulder up a mountain.

At the end of each day, he
reaches the top exhausted,

and in agony, and watches
helpless as his boulder

rolls back down.

He suffers the same punishment
every day for eternity.

PETER STRUCK: From the story
of Sisyphus in which we have

a person who's engaged in an
absolutely pointless endeavor

for eternity, we get the modern
English word of Sisyphean,

which describes some kind of
a task that seems very arduous

and also entirely pointless.

NARRATOR: The story of
Sisyphus sent a strong message

to the ancient
Greeks, that no one

can outwit death or its master.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PETER STRUCK: Hades is the one
that humans most try to trick,

or deceive, or get around.

And we can understand this.

Hades is that god
whose will over you

and whose power over
you is absolute.

No one can negotiate
their way out of death.

NARRATOR: But even
after Sisyphus, there

are still those who try.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[GROWLS]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

One of them is
Orpheus, a musician

who makes the sweetest
music in the world.

It will become his weapon
against the lord of the dead.

KRISTINA MILNOR:
Orpheus was the founder

of the musical tradition.

He was the person who invented
poetry and invented music.

He was particularly adept
with the lyre, which

was an ancient
musical instrument,

a stringed instrument
shaped sort of like a U

with a bar across the top
and strings coming down.

DAVID GEORGE: One of
the important things

you need to remember about the
word music in Greek, [GREEK]..

It means both song, but it
also means magical incantation.

So Orpheus engaged in
magic when he sung.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: There
is only one thing

Orpheus loves more than music,
his stunning young bride,

Eurydice.

DAVID GEORGE: One of the
profoundly sad things

about the Orpheus
and Eurydice story

is just how perfectly happy
and in love they were.

And one of the things about the
Greeks is that if you're happy,

something's going to happen
because it doesn't belong

to mortals to be that happy.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: One day as
Eurydice picks fruit

in a grove she's spotted by
a satyr, a hideous half-goat,

half-man beast known for its
uncontrollable sex drive.

DAVID GEORGE: Satyrs
represented the male force

of nature uncontrolled.

It was pure appetite.

It was a desire to
procreate and mate.

NARRATOR: The satyr
lunges for Eurydice.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

She tries to escape.

But the satyr corners her.

She backs away
terrified and slips

into a pit of poisonous vipers.

[HISSING]

[GROWLS]

This is where Orpheus finds
her, but he is too late.

She is in the clutches of Hades.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

KRISTINA MILNOR: Orpheus
is so in love with Eurydice

that he grieves her as no human
being has ever grieved anyone.

NARRATOR: Orpheus refuses
to accept his wife's death.

He resolves to challenge Hades
and bring back his wife alive.

RENAUD GAGNE: Life cannot
possibly go on without

Eurydice.

With his lyre as
an only weapon, he

resolves to go down
to the underworld.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Orpheus begins
a treacherous descent

into the depths of the Earth.

Failure in his quest will
doom his wife forever.

Success will make him a hero.

SARAH JOHNSTON: It's almost
as if you can't be a truly

Greek hero unless you have been
to the underworld and back.

It is a very frequent
theme in Greek literature.

It was something they
like to think about.

Death is something
that everyone shares.

We can't help but
think about it.

[LYRE PLAYING]

NARRATOR: With his
beautiful and sad songs,

Orpheus charms his way
past the boatman, Charon,

and across the River Styx.

[GROWLS]

But another terrifying
obstacle awaits him

on the other side,
Cerberus, the three

headed guard dog of Hades.

[GROWLS]

PETER STRUCK:
Cerberus was stationed

at the gates of the underworld.

He was there to monitor
those who came in and out.

No one could get in or out
without going past this dog.

DAVID GEORGE: This ferocious
dog had three heads,

and was big, much bigger than
other dogs and much stronger

than other dogs.

It's a beast that they
see and tremble before.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: With
trembling fingers,

Orpheus strums his lyre.

Cerberus is spellbound and
the musician has his opening.

But his true test is inside
the gates, Hades himself.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID GEORGE: He's going
up to the great god Hades,

and just hoping that his
command of music will make Hades

do what he wants.

But his faith, his confidence
is not in him as the musician

but in the power of music.

NARRATOR: Orpheus will attempt
to do what no mortal ever has,

to enchant the lord of the dead.

[LYRE PLAYING]

KRISTINA MILNOR: His song was so
beautiful and so grief stricken

that everyone,
including Hades, wept.

And this is the god of the
dead, he doesn't weep easily.

NARRATOR: Another figure
watches from the shadows,

Orpheus's dead wife, Eurydice.

[LYRE PLAYING]

Hades is so moved by the music
he decides to give Orpheus

a chance to win
his wife's freedom.

DAVID GEORGE: Hades recognizes
the power of love and loss

for the first time.

He cannot understand lost
love because he's immortal.

But the song connects with him.

And because of that power,
because of that song,

Orpheus is allowed to
bring Eurydice back.

[LYRE PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: On one
condition, Orpheus

has to walk out
of Hades and trust

that Eurydice is
following behind him.

But if he looks back to make
sure, he will lose her forever.

KRISTINA MILNOR: As Orpheus and
Eurydice are making their way

to the world above,
Orpheus begins to doubt.

He begins to wonder, is
Eurydice really there?

Is Hades playing some kind
of terrible trick on him?

And as he gets closer and closer
and closer to the world above,

this doubt grows and
grows and grows in him.

And eventually, just as
they're about to break through

to the surface, he can't take
it anymore and he turns around

and he sees Eurydice.

RENAUD GAGNE: And when he
does and his eyes with her,

she instantly gets dragged
back down into the underworld.

[SCREAMS]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Hades has
proven once again,

that his power over
the dead is absolute.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

But his authority will soon
be challenged by a power far

greater than him.

It will be the ultimate clash of
the gods recorded for all time

in the book of Revelation.

Hades has proven once again
that his power over the dead

[MUSIC PLAYING]

is absolute.

He has taken Orpheus
his wife, Eurydice.

Orpheus is desolate.

After returning
from the underworld,

the musician travels
deep into the wilderness

and sings to everyone he meets
about the tragedy of death.

[LYRE PLAYING]

This is the myth, but what
is the connection to reality?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

An amazing archaeological find
is shedding new light on how

the ancient Greeks viewed the
master of death and his domain.

Over the last two centuries,
mysterious gold inscriptions

have been discovered
in ancient grave sites.

SARAH JOHNSTON:
Many, many of them

have been found in a place
that suggests that they were

originally put on the
mouth of the corpse

when the corpse was buried.

And they're shaped like lips.

And so, it's almost as if
the inscription on the tablet

is meant to be speaking
on behalf of the dead.

NARRATOR: They are covered with
references to Hades, the god

and the place.

They read like directions
into the underworld

from someone who's been there.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You will find to the left of
the House of Hades a spring,

as soon as the soul has
left the light of the sun,

go to the right
being very careful.

RENAUD GAGNE: These texts have
been described as passports

to the underworld.

And they described
what happened,

what stages the dead would go
through, what guardians they

would meet, and what they
had to say to the guardians

in order to pass and to
reach the underworld.

NARRATOR: They are real life
inscriptions inspired by myth,

visions of the
afterlife believed

to be derived from the
mythical poems of Orpheus.

SARAH JOHNSTON: It was
believed that while he was

in the underworld he learned
a great deal about the way

it worked.

So when he came back to the
upper world without his wife,

he wrote poems about
the underworld.

And these poems then were
passed down from person

to person, what they should do
in the underworld, what they

shouldn't do.

And it's, in fact, portions of
these poems that are inscribed

upon the gold tablets.

[HOWLS]

NARRATOR: The ancients
used the poems of Orpheus

as an instruction
manual for life

after death, a way to
understand and navigate

the realm of Hades.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[GROWLS]

For thousands of years, this
Greek vision of the afterlife

endured.

But in the first few centuries
AD, a new set of ideas

revolutionized the way the
ancient world looked at death.

[CHANTING]

The god, Hades, was
about to come face

to face with a
powerful new force--

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Jesus Christ.

Christian tradition
tells of an epic battle

between the old order and the
new, a final clash of the gods.

At the center of the
showdown stands Hades.

And Christ has come
to collect his souls.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID GEORGE:
There's a rewriting

of the gospel of Nicodemus.

It's called the Descensus
Christi, the Descent of Christ

into Hades.

After Jesus's death, he
goes and confronts Hades.

Jesus comes in as the king
of glory and opens the gates

and leads all of the people
in Hades into Paradise.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: In Hades,
Jesus preaches

to Greece's dead souls.

The message is clear to both
the living and the dead,

reject Hades and
embrace the new savior.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

But what will
become of the master

of the dead in this new order?

The final moments of Hades are
described in the Bible's Book

of Revelation which
foretells the end of days.

DAVID GEORGE: To show his
power over death, according

to Revelation, Jesus will
destroy Hades and death itself.

NARRATOR: When Christ returns
for the Last Judgment,

he will cast the warden of
death into a lake of fire.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID GEORGE: He gives, by
the destruction of Hades,

the destruction of the realm of
the dead, a victory over death,

not for the individual,
but for all of creation.

NARRATOR: Ultimately,
Hades is destined

to share in the fate of all
the souls under his command.

Even he can't escape
the clutches of death.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID GEORGE: The potency
of the stories about Hades

is we can see how we, as humans,
look at death, how we as humans

hope perhaps to
either cheat death

or to find a way to
survive what we fear

is our existence
coming to an end.

SARAH JOHNSTON: The
underworld is fascinating.

People like to imagine what
might happen there because it's

creepy, it's eerie, it's
utterly unlike anything

that happens in this world.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[GROWLS]

[SCREAMS]

DAVID GEORGE: These stories
they're-- they're more than

just local myths, local stories
to scare children or to make

you feel better.

they're what it is to be human
in that most fundamental way

and that is to meet
your own mortality.

[MUSIC PLAYING]