Where the hades did Plutus come from?

Hey everyone!

So the Death is but a Dream blog tour is over, but there are just under two days for the giveaway. So make sure you get those entries in. Again, thank you so much to all the bloggers who participated and to Xpresso Book Tours The thing I'm most excited about is all the new likers of my Author Page on Facebook. *waves*

SO. The big question everyone had while reading DIBAD is where the hades did the Greek God Plutus come from? A lot of people have never heard of him before.

Dionysus, sitting on the left, and Plutus, holding the cornucopia. Already friends.

My author's note at the beginning of the novel explains that I discovered Plutus one day while looking up the children of Hades. And while I did take some liberties with the myths, I did try to stay true to source material. Here's what happened.

The story of Plutus is not a popular myth, and many sources say that it's a misrepresentation as the Roman God of the Underworld AND Wealth was Pluto. Otherwise known as Greek God Hades' counterpart. Some sources say Plutus is Pluto lost in translation. There are, however, places where he appears in Ancient Greek text and vases.

Plutus appears as the titular character in Aristophanes' play, Plutus. Here, he is the god of wealth who appears as blind beggar (sound familiar?). He also makes an appearance in Dante's The Inferno as the demon of wealth. Obviously, his incarnation there is quite different than the one you see in DIBAD. There are also statues that feature Plutus as a baby with the Goddess Eirene.

A lot of sources say that Plutus was the son of Demeter and Iasion. According to my research though, he is sometimes considered the son of Hades and Persephone. You can find him on many vases with the King and Queen of the Underworld.

So it's that last part that I ran with. The God of Wealth is the son of the God of the Underworld. It might not be the most accepted of all myths, but it worked incredibly well for DIBAD. I even included in the book that Plutus' obscurity was by design, because you can imagine being the God of Wealth, he's a pretty hot target for opportunists. That gave me the perfect ground for which to base a mystery novel. And a great companion to Callie.

I'm not a Greek historian or anything, so I could be incredibly wrong about it. A lot of my research was compiling different sources on the internet. This is also where other obscure gods like Telesphorus and Hygeia came from.

It sure made for a fun write. And I hope everyone enjoys it.

Also, if you haven't heard of Aristophanes before, I'd highly suggest reading his play Lysistrata. It tells the story of Sparta and Troy and of a war that's been going on for years. Eventually, the women get so fed up, they get together and decide that they won't have sex with the men until the war is over. Yep, you read that right. Even if Greek mythology isn't your thing, it's a really funny read.

Until next time peeps!

xErin