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100-583: Schloss Weißenstein is located in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg in the village of Pommersfelden , Bavaria , Germany . In 1710, Lothar Franz von Schönborn , Prince-Bishop of Bamberg and Archbishop of Mainz , inherited the estate after the local family, the Truchsesse of Pommersfelden had died out. He ordered the construction of a palace as a private summer residence, paid for from his personal wealth. In 1711, he had helped ensure

200-518: A bident , though the ornamented tip of his scepter may have been misunderstood at times as a bident. In the Roman world, the bident (from bi- , "two" + dent- , "teeth") was an agricultural implement. It may also represent one of the three types of lightning wielded by Jupiter , the Roman counterpart of Zeus, and the Etruscan Tinia . The later notion that the ruler of the underworld wielded

300-536: A "chthonic Zeus." That the trident and bident might be somewhat interchangeable is suggested by a Byzantine scholiast , who mentions Poseidon being armed with a bident. In the Middle Ages, classical underworld figures began to be depicted with a pitchfork. Early Christian writers had identified the classical underworld with Hell, and its denizens as demons or devils. In the Renaissance, the bident became

400-459: A "son of Pluto." In his 14th-century mythography, Boccaccio records a tradition in which Pluto was the father of the divine personification Veneratio ("Reverence"), noting that she had no mother because Proserpina (the Latin name of Persephone) was sterile. In The Faerie Queene (1590s), Edmund Spenser invents a daughter for Pluto whom he calls Lucifera. The character's name was taken from

500-479: A benefactor in the twelfth month, implicitly ranking him as one of the twelve principal deities. In the Attic calendar , the twelfth month, more or less equivalent to June, was Skirophorion ; the name may be connected to the rape of Persephone. In the theogony of Euhemerus (4th century BC), the gods were treated as mortal rulers whose deeds were immortalized by tradition. Ennius translated Euhemerus into Latin about

600-473: A black pig " if the curse is fulfilled by the desired deadline. The pig was a characteristic animal sacrifice to chthonic deities, whose victims were almost always black or dark in color. A set of curse tablets written in Doric Greek and found in a tomb addresses a Pasianax, "Lord to All," sometimes taken as a title of Pluto, but more recently thought to be a magical name for the corpse. Pasianax

700-487: A central sun wagon of Phoebus Apollo. Sculptures ( Jupiter , Juno , Urania and Cosmos) were made by Zammels. The vases, putti and pair of children are by P. Benkert and his workshop. Stucco work was done by Daniel Schenk. Painted railings that extend the real architectural features are by Marchini. He also was responsible for Trompe-l'œil work in the Gartensaal flight of rooms on the ground floor, accessed between

800-561: A clear distinction between Pluto and "chthonic Zeus" confuses the question of whether in some traditions, now obscure, Persephone bore children to her husband. In the late 4th century AD, Claudian's epic on the abduction motivates Pluto with a desire for children. The poem is unfinished, however, and anything Claudian may have known of these traditions is lost. Justin Martyr (2nd century AD) alludes to children of Pluto, but neither names nor enumerates them. Hesychius (5th century AD) mentions

900-412: A collar with the initials "LFC", referring to the builder, Lothar Franz Churfürst . The grand staircase extends through all three floors of the main pavilion. As suggested by Hildebrandt, galleries overlook the stairwell on both upper floors. The large ceiling fresco by Johann Rudolf Byss (1713), who later became the director of the palace gallery of paintings, shows the four then known continents, around

1000-502: A conventional attribute of Pluto. In an influential ceiling mural depicting the wedding of Cupid and Psyche , painted by Raphael 's workshop for the Villa Farnesina in 1517, Pluto is shown holding the bident, with Cerberus at his side, while Neptune holds the trident. Perhaps influenced by this work, Agostino Carracci originally depicted Pluto with a bident in a preparatory drawing for his painting Pluto (1592), in which

1100-507: A cypress, consumed by grief over the accidental death of a pet stag . A "white cypress" is part of the topography of the underworld that recurs in the Orphic gold tablets as a kind of beacon near the entrance, perhaps to be compared with the Tree of Life in various world mythologies. The description of the cypress as "white" (Greek leukē ), since the botanical tree is dark, is symbolic, evoking

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1200-587: A desire for the presence of a deity, and has been compared to a similar epiclesis in the Acts of Thomas . The names of both Hades and Pluto appear also in the Greek Magical Papyri and curse tablets , with Hades typically referring to the underworld as a place, and Pluto regularly invoked as the partner of Persephone. Five Latin curse tablets from Rome, dating to the mid-1st century BC, promise Persephone and Pluto an offering of " dates , figs , and

1300-535: A grotto by Georg Hennicke, who applied semi-precious stones and seashells to the walls. He also added various animal and putti figures. The four larger-than-life stucco statues of the four elements were made by Zammels. On the first floor is the main hall of the palace, the Marmorsaal (marble hall), also facing the garden. Pilasters and columns of red stucco marble are set off from green walls. Situated on sills are stucco figurines by Zammels, showing allegories of

1400-532: A helmet (kyneê) . The helmet Pluto receives is presumably the magical Cap of Invisibility (aidos kyneê) , but the Bibliotheca is the only ancient source that explicitly says it belonged to Pluto. The verbal play of aidos , "invisible," and Hades is thought to account for this attribution of the helmet to the ruler of the underworld, since no ancient narratives record his use or possession of it. Later authors such as Rabelais (16th century) do attribute

1500-603: A number of other deities, including Summanus , the Roman god of nocturnal thunder; Februus , the Roman god from whose purification rites the month of February takes its name and an Etruscans god of the underworld the syncretic god Serapis , regarded as Pluto's Egyptian equivalent ; and the Semitic god Muth (Μούθ). Muth was described by Philo of Byblos as the equivalent of both Thanatos (Death personified ) and Pluto. The ancient Greeks did not regard Pluto as "death" per se. The best-known myth involving Pluto or Hades

1600-579: A pallor. Martianus Capella (5th century) describes him as both "growing pale in shadow, a fugitive from light" and actively "shedding darkness in the gloom of Tartarean night," crowned with a wreath made of ebony as suitable for the kingdom he governs. The horses of Pluto are usually black, but Ovid describes them as "sky-colored" ( caeruleus , from caelum , "sky"), which might be blue, greenish-blue, or dark blue. The Renaissance mythographer Natale Conti says wreaths of narcissus , maidenhair fern (adianthus) , and cypress were given to Pluto. In

1700-576: A trident or bident can perhaps be traced to a line in Seneca 's Hercules Furens ("Hercules Enraged"), in which Father Dis, the Roman counterpart of Pluto, uses a three-pronged spear to drive off Hercules as he attempts to invade Pylos. Seneca calls Dis the "Infernal Jove" or the "dire Jove" (the Jove who gives dire or ill omens, dirae ) , just as in the Greek tradition, Plouton is sometimes identified as

1800-490: A young bride whose memory even the Lethe 's waters of forgetting have not erased from him. Pluto assures him that death will reunite them someday, but Protesilaus argues that Pluto himself should understand love and its impatience, and reminds the king of his grant to Orpheus and to Alcestis , who took her husband's place in death and then was permitted at the insistence of Heracles to return to him. When Persephone intercedes for

1900-549: Is monogamous , and is rarely said to have children. In Orphic texts , the chthonic nymph Melinoe is the daughter of Persephone by Zeus disguised as Pluto, and the Eumenides ("The Kindly Ones") are the offspring of Persephone and Zeus Chthonios , often identified as Pluto. The Augustan poet Vergil says that Pluto is the father of the Furies , but the mother is the goddess Nox ( Nyx ), not his wife Persephone.The lack of

2000-521: Is a Regierungsbezirk (administrative [ Regierungs ] region [ bezirk ]) of the state of Bavaria , southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia , the others being Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia , which are all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern ( Bavaria ). With more than 200 independent breweries which brew approximately 1000 different types of beer , Upper Franconia has

2100-422: Is a sceptre , but he also often holds a full or overflowing cornucopia; Hades sometimes holds a horn, but it is depicted with no contents and should be understood as a drinking horn . Unlike Plouton, Hades never holds agrarian attributes such as stalks of grain. His chest is usually bare or only partly covered, whereas Plouton is fully robed (exceptions, however, are admitted by the author). Plouton stands, often in

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2200-513: Is called Pluto (or the rich). Note also, that he will have nothing to do with men while they are in the body, but only when the soul is liberated from the desires and evils of the body. Now there is a great deal of philosophy and reflection in that; for in their liberated state he can bind them with the desire of virtue, but while they are flustered and maddened by the body, not even father Cronos himself would suffice to keep them with him in his own far-famed chains. Since "the union of body and soul

2300-534: Is distinguished from the gloomier Hades. The Roman poet Ennius ( ca. 239–169 BC), the leading figure in the Hellenization of Latin literature , considered Pluto a Greek god to be explained in terms of the Roman equivalents Dis Pater and Orcus. It is unclear whether Pluto had a literary presence in Rome before Ennius. Some scholars think that rituals and beliefs pertaining to Pluto entered Roman culture with

2400-422: Is found elsewhere as an epithet of Zeus, or in the tablets may invoke a daimon like Abrasax . A sanctuary dedicated to Pluto was called a ploutonion (Latin plutonium ). The complex at Eleusis for the mysteries had a ploutonion regarded as the birthplace of the divine child Ploutos, in another instance of conflation or close association of the two gods. Greek inscriptions record an altar of Pluto, which

2500-453: Is not better than the loosing," death is not an evil. Walter Burkert thus sees Pluto as a "god of dissolution." Among the titles of Pluto was Isodaitēs , "divider into equal portions," a title that connects him to the fate goddesses the Moirai . Isodaitēs was also a cult title for Dionysus and Helios . In ordering his ideal city, Plato proposed a calendar in which Pluto was honored as

2600-562: Is of him abducting Persephone to be his wife and the queen of his realm. Plouton as the name of the ruler of the underworld first appears in Greek literature of the Classical period , in the works of the Athenian playwrights and of the philosopher Plato , who is the major Greek source on its significance. Under the name Pluto, the god appears in other myths in a secondary role, mostly as

2700-414: Is portrayed as the dark and violent abductor of Persephone. Pluto and Hades differ in character, but they are not distinct figures and share two dominant myths. In Greek cosmogony , the god received the rule of the underworld in a three-way division of sovereignty over the world, with his brother Zeus ruling the sky and his other brother Poseidon sovereign over the sea. His central narrative in myth

2800-626: Is the abduction of Persephone, also known as Kore ("the Maiden"). The earliest literary versions of the myth are a brief mention in Hesiod's Theogony and the extended narrative of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter ; in both these works, the ruler of the underworld is named as Hades ("the Hidden One"). Hades is an unsympathetic figure, and Persephone's unwillingness is emphasized. Increased usage of

2900-491: The Odyssey , took place in a fallow field that had been ploughed three times, in what seems to be a reference to a ritual copulation or sympathetic magic to ensure the earth's fertility. "The resemblance of the name Ploutos to Plouton ...," it has been noted, "cannot be accidental. Plouton is lord of the dead, but as Persephone's husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility." Demeter's son Plutus merges in

3000-582: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter , Gaia (Earth) produced the narcissus at Zeus's request as a snare for Persephone; when she grasps it, a chasm opens up and the "Host to Many" (Hades) seizes her. Narcissus wreaths were used in early times to crown Demeter and Persephone, as well as the Furies ( Eumenides ). The flower was associated with narcotic drugginess ( narkê , "torpor"), erotic fascination , and imminent death; to dream of crowning oneself with narcissus

3100-511: The Jesuits whom he supported. Other collections include Faiences made in Delft, glass and sea shells. The palace chapel features three important works of art: an Italian Lamentation of Christ (17th century), a Man of Sorrows from Spain (ca. 1730) and a late-Gothic Mother of God . The Marstall (stables building) is located to the south of the cour d'honneur and is connected to the wings of

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3200-533: The Roman Imperial era , the Greek geographer Strabo (1st century AD) makes a distinction between Pluto and Hades. In writing of the mineral wealth of ancient Iberia ( Roman Spain ), he says that among the Turdetani , it is "Pluto, and not Hades, who inhabits the region down below." In the discourse On Mourning by the Greek author Lucian (2nd century AD), Pluto's "wealth" is the dead he rules over in

3300-398: The abyss (chasma) ; the name Hades is reserved for the underworld itself. In Greek religious practice, Pluto is sometimes seen as the "chthonic Zeus" ( Zeus Chthonios or Zeus Catachthonios ), or at least as having functions or significance equivalent to those of Zeus but pertaining to the earth or underworld. In ancient Roman and Hellenistic religion , Pluto was identified with

3400-452: The self is a Platonic cave with capillaires , in French both "maidenhair fern" and " blood vessels ". The cypress (Greek cyparissus , Latin cupressus ) has traditional associations with mourning. In ancient Attica , households in mourning were garlanded with cypress, and it was used to fumigate the air during cremations . In the myth of Cyparissus , a youth was transformed into

3500-616: The "All-Receiver" who commands death and is the master of mortals. His titles are given as Zeus Chthonios and Euboulos ("Good Counsel"). In the hymn's topography , Pluto's dwelling is in Tartarus , simultaneously a "meadow" and "thick-shaded and dark," where the Acheron encircles "the roots of the earth." Hades is again the name of the place, here described as "windless," and its gates, through which Pluto carried "pure Demeter's daughter" as his bride, are located in an Attic cave within

3600-424: The 16th-century mythography of Natale Conti, who used it as the Latin translation of Greek phosphor , "light-bearer," a regular epithet of Hecate . Spenser incorporated aspects of the mysteries into The Faerie Queene . Orpheus was regarded as a founder and prophet of the mysteries called " Orphic ," " Dionysiac ," or " Bacchic ." Mythologized for his ability to entrance even animals and trees with his music, he

3700-764: The Latin Fables of Hyginus ( ca. 64 BC–AD 17). The most influential version of the abduction myth is that of Ovid (d. 17 or 18 AD), who tells the story in both the Metamorphoses (Book 5) and the Fasti (Book 4). Another major retelling, also in Latin, is the long unfinished poem De raptu Proserpinae ("On the Abduction of Proserpina") by Claudian (d. 404 AD). Ovid uses the name Dis , not Pluto in these two passages, and Claudian uses Pluto only once; translators and editors , however, sometimes supply

3800-539: The Turkish and Persian monarchies on the inner wall and of the Roman and Greek monarchies on the outer wall. In the corners, the Four Ages are depicted. The ceiling fresco by Franz Michael Rottmayr shows Aurora greeted by Juno, Venus and Dionysus . In the center of each wall a virtue is shown: Justice, Strength, Industry and Wisdom. Stucco work by Daniel Schenk shows putti, vases and eagles. The right wing contains

3900-609: The agricultural wealth of "the year's fruits." Pausanias explains the significance of Pluto's key in describing a wondrously carved cedar chest at the Temple of Hera in Elis. Numerous deities are depicted, with one panel grouping Dionysus, Persephone, the nymphs and Pluto. Pluto holds a key because "they say that what is called Hades has been locked up by Pluto, and that nobody will return back again therefrom." Natale Conti cites Pausanias in noting that keys are an attribute of Pluto as

4000-449: The best portion? ... How much better are things below than what Zeus possesses! To Plato, the god of the underworld was "an agent in [the] beneficent cycle of death and rebirth" meriting worship under the name of Plouton , a giver of spiritual wealth. In the dialogue Cratylus , Plato has Socrates explain the etymology of Plouton , saying that Pluto gives wealth ( ploutos ), and his name means "giver of wealth, which comes out of

4100-420: The color glaukos , "bluish grey," "greenish" or "sea-colored," which might describe the plant's leaves. Because the color could describe the sky, Cornutus regularly gives it divine connotations. Pluto's twin sister was named Glauca . Ambiguity of color is characteristic of Pluto. Although both he and his realm are regularly described as dark, black, or gloomy, the god himself is sometimes seen as pale or having

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4200-492: The company of both Demeter and Kore, or sometimes one of the goddesses, but Hades almost always sits or reclines, usually with Persephone facing him. "Confusion and disagreement" about the interpretation of these images remain. Attributes of Pluto mentioned in the Orphic Hymn to Pluto are his scepter , keys, throne, and horses. In the hymn, the keys are connected to his capacity for giving wealth to humanity, specifically

4300-402: The cult of Apollo , as confirmed by archaeological investigations during the 1960s. It too was a dream oracle. The sites often seem to have been chosen because the presence of naturally occurring mephitic vapors was thought to indicate an opening to the underworld. In Italy, Avernus was considered an entrance to the underworld that produced toxic vapors, but Strabo seems not to think that it

4400-525: The dead warrior, Pluto grants the request at once, though allowing only one day for the reunion. As Pluto gained importance as an embodiment of agricultural wealth within the Eleusinian Mysteries, from the 5th century BC onward the name Hades was increasingly reserved for the underworld as a place. Neither Hades nor Pluto was one of the traditional Twelve Olympians , and Hades seems to have received limited cult, perhaps only at Elis , where

4500-487: The death of Lothar Franz in 1729, the palace passed to his nephew Friedrich Karl von Schönborn who had the park expanded. A plan by Balthasar Neumann was however, only partially realized. In the early 19th century, the park was transformed from its original Baroque form into an English landscape garden . During the Seven Years' War the palace was attacked and damaged by Prussian troops. Minor restoration work

4600-556: The deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest. The name Ploutōn came into widespread usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries , in which Pluto was venerated as both a stern ruler and a loving husband to Persephone . The couple received souls in the afterlife and are invoked together in religious inscriptions, being referred to as Plouton and as Kore respectively. Hades, by contrast, had few temples and religious practices associated with him, and he

4700-411: The district of Eleusis . The route from Persephone's meadow to Hades crosses the sea. The hymn concludes: You alone were born to judge deeds obscure and conspicuous. Holiest and illustrious ruler of all, frenzied god, You delight in the worshiper's respect and reverence. Come with favor and joy to the initiates. I summon you. The hymn is one of several examples of Greco-Roman prayer that express

4800-473: The divine couple appear as welcoming figures in a metrical epitaph : I know that even below the earth, if there is indeed a reward for the worthy ones, the first and foremost honors, nurse, shall be yours, next to Persephone and Pluto. Hesychius identifies Pluto with Eubouleus , but other ancient sources distinguish between these two underworld deities. In the Mysteries Eubouleus plays

4900-540: The earth beneath". Because the name Hades is taken to mean "the invisible", people fear what they cannot see; although they are in error about the nature of this deity's power, Socrates says, "the office and name of the God really correspond": He is the perfect and accomplished Sophist , and the great benefactor of the inhabitants of the other world; and even to us who are upon earth he sends from below exceeding blessings. For he has much more than he wants down there; wherefore he

5000-446: The earth, both the crops on its surface—he was originally a god of the land—and the mines hidden within it." What is sometimes taken as "confusion" of the two gods Plouton and Ploutos ("Wealth") held or acquired a theological significance in antiquity. As a lord of abundance or riches, Pluto expresses the aspect of the underworld god that was positive, symbolized in art by the "horn of plenty" ( cornucopia ), by means of which Plouton

5100-538: The election of Karl VI who rewarded him with a gift of 100,000 gulden. A team of architects including Johann Dientzenhofer who had previously built the Fulda Cathedral and the church at Kloster Banz and Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt , the court architect of Emperor Karl VI , worked on the palace. The Marstall (stables) and park were designed by Schönborn's own court architect, Maximilian von Welsch . Anselm Franz von Ritter zu Groenesteyn designed many of

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5200-488: The end of the plough-tail and bring down your stick on the backs of the oxen as they draw on the pole-bar by the yoke-straps." Plouton was one of several euphemistic names for Hades, described in the Iliad as the god most hateful to mortals. Plato says that people prefer the name Plouton , "giver of wealth," because the name of Hades is fear-provoking. The name was understood as referring to "the boundless riches of

5300-547: The establishment of the Saecular Games in 249 BC, and that Dis pater was only a translation of Plouton . In the mid-1st century BC, Cicero identifies Pluto with Dis, explaining that "The earth in all its power and plenty is sacred to Father Dis, a name which is the same as Dives , 'The Wealthy One,' as is the Greek Plouton . This is because everything is born of the earth and returns to it again." During

5400-478: The family coat of arms, flanked by lions and crowned by Mercury . To the left is a figure of Athena , a symbol of peace and science, to the right is a warrior with spear and torch, symbolizing the just-ended War of the Spanish Succession . The gable also shows a lute player and a figure holding another Schönborn coat of arms. There are four sculpture groups (sandstone) in front of the ground floor of

5500-650: The following years, due to territorial changes (e. g. loss of Tyrol , addition of the Palatinate ), the number of Kreise was reduced to 8. One of these was the Mainkreis (Main District). In 1837 king Ludwig I of Bavaria renamed the Kreise after historical territorial names and tribes of the area. This also involved some border changes or territorial swaps. Thus the name Mainkreis changed to Upper Franconia. Next to

5600-561: The formal garden was begun by von Welsch in 1715. After 1722, on the suggestion of his nephew Friedrich Carl, Schönborn summoned Abraham Huber from Salzburg, who by 1723 had the fountains running. The statuary was added only after Lothar Franz' death in 1741. The linden avenue was planted in 1768 with 200 linden trees from the Aischer Wald. Transformation of the formal Baroque garden into an English landscape garden began as early as 1786 under Hugo Damian Erwein von Schönborn-Wiesentheid and

5700-742: The former episcopal residence city of Bamberg , the capital Bayreuth , the former residence city of Coburg and the classicist centre of Hof , as well as the towns of Lichtenfels , Kronach , Gößweinstein and Kulmbach , the Weißenstein Palace , Banz Abbey and the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers , the scenic attractions of the River Main and the low mountain ranges of the Fichtel Mountains with

5800-463: The god ended up holding his characteristic key. In Caravaggio 's Giove, Nettuno e Plutone (ca. 1597), a ceiling mural based on alchemical allegory, it is Neptune who holds the bident. The name Plouton is first used in Greek literature by Athenian playwrights . In Aristophanes ' comedy The Frogs ( Batrachoi , 405 BC), in which "the Eleusinian colouring is in fact so pervasive,"

5900-435: The helmet to Pluto. Erasmus calls it the "helmet of Orcus" and gives it as a figure of speech referring to those who conceal their true nature by a cunning device. Francis Bacon notes the proverbial usage: "the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the counsel, and celerity in the execution." No ancient image of the ruler of the underworld can be said with certainty to show him with

6000-477: The main building on the garden front with its coat of arms of the Schönborns has been carved from the same material. Colossal statues of Endymion and Diana flank the gable. It is ornamented by two figures, one holding a sheaf, the other a horn of plenty. All of these were likely made by Nikolaus Rösch. The gable is topped by a statue of Atlas holding up the sky. The gable facing the cour d'honneur also has

6100-422: The main pavilion, two each on the garden and the courtyard side. They were likely made by Burkard Zammels, who worked here in 1718–20. On the garden front, the statues show Pluto and Proserpina on the left and Apollo and Daphne on the right. On the cour d'honneur side, the figures are somewhat obscure and have been interpreted as allegories of Justice & Victory and Vigilance & Truth. A carved dog wears

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6200-497: The main wing sits on a pedestal-like ground floor and features two full upper floors with high windows. The other parts of the building have only one main floor and one mezzanine floor, with the exception of the pavilions sitting at the end of the two wings, which have two main floors and one mezzanine floor (the latter housing the guest rooms). All the facades are covered by light gray sandstone, sculptures and window frames are made from yellow-greenish sandstone. The triangular gable of

6300-463: The more familiar "Pluto" when other epithets appear in the source text . The abduction myth was a popular subject for Greek and Roman art , and recurs throughout Western art and literature, where the name "Pluto" becomes common (see Pluto in Western art and literature below). Narrative details from Ovid and Claudian influence these later versions in which the abductor is named as Pluto, especially

6400-467: The most beautiful of the nymphs, and abducted her to live with him in his realm. After the long span of her life came to its end, he memorialized their love by creating a white tree in the Elysian Fields . The tree was the white poplar (Greek leukē ), the leaves of which are white on one side and dark on the other, representing the duality of upper and underworld. A wreath of white poplar leaves

6500-501: The name Plouton in religious inscriptions and literary texts reflects the influence of the Eleusinian Mysteries , which treated Pluto and Persephone as a divine couple who received initiates in the afterlife; as such, Pluto was disassociated from the "violent abductor" of Kore. Two early works that give the abductor god's name as Pluto are the Greek mythography traditionally known as the Library of "Apollodorus" (1st century BC) and

6600-527: The name Plouton instead of Hades in relating the tripartite division of sovereignty, the abduction of Persephone, and the visit of Orpheus to the underworld. This version of the theogony for the most part follows Hesiod (see above ), but adds that the three brothers were each given a gift by the Cyclopes to use in their battle against the Titans : Zeus thunder and lightning; Poseidon a trident ; and Pluto

6700-615: The name of both a god of the underworld and the underworld as a place. Pluto ( Pluton in French and German, Plutone in Italian) becomes the most common name for the classical ruler of the underworld in subsequent Western literature and other art forms . The name Plouton does not appear in Greek literature of the Archaic period . In Hesiod 's Theogony , the six children of Cronus and Rhea are Zeus , Hera , Poseidon , Hades , Demeter , and Hestia . The male children divide

6800-497: The narrative tradition with her son-in-law Pluto, redefining the implacable chariot-driver Hades whose horses trample the flowering earth. That the underworld god was associated early on with success in agricultural activity is already evident in Hesiod's Works and Days , line 465–469: "Pray to Zeus of the Earth and to pure Demeter to make Demeter's holy grain sound and heavy, when first you begin ploughing, when you hold in your hand

6900-587: The normal obduracy of Pluto; the Augustan poet Horace describes him as incapable of tears. Claudian, however, portrays the steely god as succumbing to Orpheus's song so that "with iron cloak he wipes his tears" (ferrugineo lacrimas deterget amictu) , an image renewed by Milton in Il Penseroso (106–107): "Such notes ... / Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek." The Greek writer Lucian ( ca. 125–after 180 AD) suggests that Pluto's love for his wife gave

7000-610: The north-east and the Czech Republic to the east. After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally reorganized and, in 1808, divided into 15 administrative government regions (German: Regierungsbezirke (singular Regierungsbezirk )), in Bavaria called Kreise (singular: Kreis). They were created in the fashion of the French departements, quite even in size and population, and named after their main rivers. In

7100-676: The outbuildings. The local head of construction was the Jesuit priest Nikolaus Loyson (1676–1720). The palace was built between 1711 and 1719 from local sandstone materials, the colour of which gave rise to the name of the palace ("white stone"). The grand stairway was the first such structure built in the Baroque style in Germany. The interior art was finished in 1723. Contributors included Johann Michael Rottmayr , Johann Rudolf Byss and Giovanni Francesco Marchini  [ de ] . After

7200-444: The palace by wrought-iron railings. Built by Johann Dientzendorffer based on plans by Maximilian von Welsch 1714—17, it has a concave front facing the courtyard. It was constructed with one floor fewer than originally intended. The Marstall features double columns adorning the central part, which is topped by a clock tower. Below this is an oval hall. Its ceiling has a fresco of Perseus and Andromeda by G.F. Marchini. Construction of

7300-547: The palace gallery of paintings and its library, with stucco work by D. Schenk and G. Hennicke after 1713. Schönborn had collected a large number of paintings by contemporary artists, many of them Dutch, that were hung in up to four vertical rows, completely covering the gallery walls. He especially treasured painting of members of his family, of the Habsburgs and other rulers and rare animal motives. Schönborn also collected East Asian porcelain delivered to him en masse by members of

7400-404: The plant. For extracting stings and thorns , xiphion was mixed with wine and frankincense to make a cataplasm . The plant was also used as an aphrodisiac and contraceptive . It grew in humid places. In an obscure passage, Cornutus seems to connect Pluto's wearing of phasganion to an etymology for Avernus , which he derives from the word for "air," perhaps through some association with

7500-492: The possessor of a quest -object, and especially in the descent of Orpheus or other heroes to the underworld. Plūtō ( [ˈpluːtoː] ; genitive Plūtōnis ) is the Latinized form of the Greek Plouton . Pluto's Roman equivalent is Dis Pater , whose name is most often taken to mean "Rich Father" and is perhaps a direct translation of Plouton. Pluto was also identified with the obscure Roman Orcus , like Hades

7600-459: The privilege of returning to the upper world . The play also draws on beliefs and imagery from Orphic and Dionysiac cult, and rituals pertaining to Ploutos (Plutus, "wealth"). In a fragment from another play by Aristophanes, a character "is comically singing of the excellent aspects of being dead", asking in reference to the tripartition of sovereignty over the world: And where do you think Pluto gets his name [i.e. "rich"], if not because he took

7700-558: The region was 40.6 billion € in 2018, accounting for 1.2% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €34,900 or 116% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 96% of the EU average. 49°57′N 11°35′E  /  49.950°N 11.583°E  / 49.950; 11.583 Pluto (mythology) In ancient Greek religion and mythology , Pluto ( Greek : Πλούτων , Ploutōn )

7800-496: The ritual texts of the mystery religions preserved by the so-called Orphic or Bacchic gold tablets , from the late 5th century BC onward the name Hades appears more frequently than Plouton , but in reference to the underground place: Plouton is the ruler who presides over it in a harmonious partnership with Persephone. By the end of the 4th century BC, the name Plouton appears in Greek metrical inscriptions. Two fragmentary tablets greet Pluto and Persephone jointly, and

7900-511: The role of Venus and Cupid in manipulating Pluto with love and desire. Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance , and certainly by the time of Natale Conti 's influential Mythologiae (1567), the traditions pertaining to the various rulers of the classical underworld coalesced into a single mythology that made few if any distinctions among Hades, Pluto, Dis, and Orcus. Unlike his freely procreating brothers Zeus and Poseidon, Pluto

8000-412: The role of a torchbearer, possibly a guide for the initiate's return. In the view of Lewis Richard Farnell , Eubouleus was originally a title referring to the "good counsel" the ruler of the underworld was able to give and which was sought at Pluto's dream oracles ; by the 2nd century BC, however, he had acquired a separate identity. The Orphic Hymn to Pluto addresses the god as "strong-spirited" and

8100-584: The ruler of the underworld a special sympathy or insight into lovers parted by death. In one of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead , Pluto questions Protesilaus , the first Greek hero killed in the Trojan War , who wishes to return to the world of the living. "You are then in love with life?", Pluto asks. "Such lovers we have here in plenty; but they love an object, which none of them can obtain." Protesilaus explains, like an Orpheus in reverse, that he has left behind

8200-534: The ruler of the underworld as Plouton , as for instance in the Bibliotheca . The myth demonstrates the importance of Pluto "the Rich" as the possessor of a quest-object. Orpheus performing before Pluto and Persephone was a common subject of ancient and later Western literature and art, and one of the most significant mythological themes of the classical tradition . The demonstration of Orpheus's power depends on

8300-409: The ruler of the underworld is one of the characters, under the name of Plouton . The play depicts a mock descent to the underworld by the god Dionysus to bring back one of the dead tragic playwrights in the hope of restoring Athenian theater to its former glory. Pluto is a silent presence onstage for about 600 lines presiding over a contest among the tragedians, then announces that the winner has

8400-448: The scepter is of Jove (Greek Zeus) and the trident of Neptune (Poseidon). A golden key (chrusea klês) was laid on the tongue of initiates by priests at Eleusis and was a symbol of the revelation they were obligated to keep secret. A key is among the attributes of other infernal deities such as Hecate , Anubis , and Persephone, and those who act as guardians or timekeepers, such as Janus and Aion . Aeacus (Aiakos) , one of

8500-490: The temple was opened once a year. During the time of Plato , the Athenians periodically honored the god called Plouton with the "strewing of a couch" ( tên klinên strôsai ) . At Eleusis , Plouton had his own priestess. Pluto was worshipped with Persephone as a divine couple at Knidos , Ephesos , Mytilene , and Sparta as well as at Eleusis, where they were known simply as God ( Theos ) and Goddess (Thea) . In

8600-463: The three mortal kings who became judges in the afterlife , is also a kleidouchos (κλειδοῦχος), "holder of the keys," and a priestly doorkeeper in the court of Pluto and Persephone. According to the Stoic philosopher Cornutus (1st century AD), Pluto wore a wreath of phasganion , more often called xiphion , traditionally identified as a type of gladiolus . Dioscorides recorded medical uses for

8700-579: The town of Wunsiedel and the Franconian Forest belong among the region's major tourist attractions. There are also numerous spas like Bad Rodach , Bad Steben , Bad Staffelstein , Bad Berneck and Bad Alexandersbad . Oberfranken is subdivided into nine Landkreise (districts) and four Kreisfreie Städte (district-free or independent cities). The lowest level is divided into 214 municipalities (including four cities). Landkreise : Kreisfreie Städte : The gross domestic product (GDP) of

8800-452: The two flights of stairs. His work is in evidence in both side halls. To the west he created an image of Ionic columns flanking views of an ideal Italian landscape under a sky populated by Flora and Pomona floating on clouds. To the east, painted columns give views of angels who face a "collapsing" entryway. The central hall has a ceiling fresco showing the allegorical "times of the day" by Johann Jakob Gerbhardt. The room had been turned into

8900-466: The white garments worn by initiates or the clothing of a corpse, or the pallor of the dead. In Orphic funeral rites, it was forbidden to make coffins of cypress. The tradition of the mystery religions favors Pluton/Hades as a loving and faithful partner to Persephone, but one ancient myth that preserves a lover for him parallels the abduction and also has a vegetative aspect. A Roman source says that Pluto fell in love with Leuca (Greek Leukē , "White"),

9000-489: The world into three realms. Hades takes Persephone by force from her mother Demeter , with the consent of Zeus. Ploutos , "Wealth," appears in the Theogony as the child of Demeter and Iasion : "fine Plutus, who goes upon the whole earth and the broad back of the sea, and whoever meets him and comes into his hands, that man he makes rich, and he bestows much wealth upon him." The union of Demeter and Iasion, described also in

9100-409: The world's highest brewery-density per capita. A special Franconian beer route ( Fränkische Brauereistraße ) runs through many popular breweries. The administrative region borders on Thuringia ( Thüringen ) to the north, Lower Franconia ( Unterfranken ) to the west, Middle Franconia ( Mittelfranken ) to the south-west, and Upper Palatinate ( Oberpfalz ) to the south-east, Saxony ( Sachsen ) to

9200-488: Was a bad sign. In the myth of Narcissus , the flower is created when a beautiful, self-absorbed youth rejects sexuality and is condemned to perpetual self-love along the Styx . Conti's inclusion of adianthus ( Adiantum in modern nomenclature) is less straightforward. The name, meaning "unmoistened" (Greek adianton ), was taken in antiquity to refer to the fern's ability to repel water. The plant, which grew in wet places,

9300-577: Was a ploutonion. Kevin Clinton attempted to distinguish the iconography of Hades, Plouton, Ploutos, and the Eleusinian Theos in 5th-century vase painting that depicts scenes from or relating to the mysteries. In Clinton's schema, Plouton is a mature man, sometimes even white-haired; Hades is also usually bearded and mature, but his darkness is emphasized in literary descriptions, represented in art by dark hair. Plouton's most common attribute

9400-399: Was also called capillus veneris , "hair of Venus," divinely dry when she emerged from the sea. Historian of medicine John M. Riddle has suggested that the adianthus was one of the ferns Dioscorides called asplenon and prescribed as a contraceptive (atokios) . The associations of Proserpine (Persephone) and the maidenhair are alluded to by Samuel Beckett in a 1946 poem, in which

9500-554: Was also credited in antiquity with the authorship of the lyrics that have survived as the Orphic Hymns , among them a hymn to Pluto . Orpheus's voice and lyre-playing represented a medium of revelation or higher knowledge for the mystery cults. In his central myth, Orpheus visits the underworld in the hope of retrieving his bride, Eurydice , relying on the power of his music to charm the king and queen of Hades. Greek narratives of Orpheus's descent and performance typically name

9600-685: Was completed in the 19th century. The Schloss remains the property of Schönborn family . It is considered a Baroque masterwork and the combination of exterior and well-preserved interiors gives it European importance. The palace and its park are open to the public. The Marstall and Orangerie today house a hotel (currently closed). The palace contains the largest private Baroque art collection in Germany, containing over 600 pictures. Baroque and Renaissance artists represented include Artemisia Gentileschi , Peter Paul Rubens , Albrecht Dürer , Titian , Rembrandt and Anthony van Dyck . Upper Franconia Upper Franconia ( German : Oberfranken )

9700-399: Was done in the late 19th century. More recently, preservation work has been done between 1975 and 2003. The main building ( corps de logis ) is flanked by two wings that open towards the inner courtyard by way of arcades. In the direction of this cour d'honneur the central part of the main building extends quite noticeably, to accommodate the large central staircase. The middle pavilion of

9800-402: Was fashioned by Heracles to mark his ascent from the underworld , an aition for why it was worn by initiates and by champion athletes participating in funeral games . Like other plants associated with Pluto, white poplar was regarded as a contraceptive in antiquity. The relation of this tree to the white cypress of the mysteries is debated. The Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus uses

9900-400: Was the ruler of the Greek underworld . The earlier name for the god was Hades , which became more common as the name of the underworld itself. Pluto represents a more positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife . Ploutōn was frequently conflated with Ploûtos , the Greek god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because as a chthonic god Pluto ruled

10000-402: Was to be "plastered", that is, resurfaced for a new round of sacrifices at Eleusis. One of the known ploutonia was in the sacred grove between Tralleis and Nysa , where a temple of Pluto and Persephone was located. Visitors sought healing and dream oracles . The ploutonion at Hierapolis , Phrygia , was connected to the rites of Cybele , but during the Roman Imperial era was subsumed by

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