1558: Names for the Roman Underworld Mar 21, 2019
In the Roman and Greek mythological tradition, many of words for the underworld taken from other names. For instance, in the Etruscan and Roman pantheon of gods, Orcus—which later gave its name to the modern 'ogre'—was a god who punished oath-breakers, and Pluto was the god of the underworld, and both of their names were often used to refer to the whole underworld. Moreover, later in history, Orcus' role was equated with Dīs Pater, and this name too was used to denote the underworld. These same trends existed in many other Roman traditions, and Greek ones as well.
Support Word Facts on Patreon.com/wordfacts