Hades was a fearsome Greek god and ruler of the Underworld. So dreaded by the Greeks that they didn’t dare speak his name, his most famous act was abducting Persephone, goddess of springtime.
Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the wife of Hades, and the queen of the Underworld. Her most important myth tells of how Hades abducted her, then tricked her into eating something in the Underworld so that she could never leave. Not even her mother, Demeter, could bring her home.
Pluto was the Roman counterpart to Hades, the Greek deity who ruled the underworld of the same name. A wizened Pluto leans on his staff as his three-headed hound Cerberus keeps watch in this statue from the second century CE.
Hestia was the firstborn child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, rulers of the cosmos before the Olympians; her siblings included Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus.