Hey Everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to dive into another
versus, this time pitting Hades, the lord of the underworld, against Poseidon, the lord of the sea.
In this head-to-head we’re going to determine who would win based
on several points of consideration - specifically, weapons, sphere of influence,
raw power, and combat ability - to see which one would ultimately emerge victorious.
To set the stage for this, we’re going to do a quick overview
of part of the Greek creation myth, as much of the information we’ll need is incorporated in it.
Here we go.
Following the rule of the Primordials, Cronus, the youngest and boldest of the 12
first-generation titans, rose to power by castrating his father, Uranus, taking his
place. After establishing himself as the king of the cosmos, Cronus learned from his parents that
he was fated to be overthrown by one of his sons as he himself had overthrown his father,
perpetuating the vicious cycle of son supplanting father. In an effort to forestall
this eventuality, he swallowed his children as soon as they were born, imprisoning them inside
himself. But his attempt to preempt his fate was thwarted when his consort, the titan goddess Rhea,
proffered a stone swaddled in baby’s wrappings in the place of her youngest son,
Zeus, who was whisked away and raised in secret. When Zeus was grown, he made a triumphant return,
freed his siblings from Cronus’ belly, freed the cyclopes and the Hecatonchires,
and then successfully led this motley alliance of gods and monsters
in a 10 year war against the titans called the Titanomachy,
which ended with the defeat of the titans and their subsequent imprisonment in Tartarus.
Now, you might be wondering: why is this portion of the creation myth integral
to a versus video that pits Hades against Poseidon to see which god would emerge victorious after an
all out one-on-one battle. Well, it’s crucial because this portion of the creation myth
sets the stage for three of the most important factors in this comparison,
namely, weapons, relative power level, and sphere of influence.
The Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes - there were three of each - allied themselves with the gods
after the gods traveled to the underworld, slayed the dragon Campe, and freed each trio.
The Hecatonchires were indomitable behemoths. 50 arms hung from each shoulder,
and 50 heads surmounted each of their bodies. They joined the gods on the battlefield,
unleashing an onslaught of boulders that rained down on the Titans. The main contribution of the
Cyclopes wasn’t as warriors, but rather, as forge masters. They crafted three weapons, one for each
of the brothers. They made Zeus’ lightning bolts, Hades’ cap of darkness, and Poseidon’s trident.
We’re going to revisit these later in the video, looking at how they bolster each god’s strength.
After the war was over, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon each drew lots to see which domain
would be distributed to which brother. To Zeus went the skies, to Hades, the underworld,
and to Poseidon, the sea. The fact that each of their domains were distributed by chance
tells us that each of the brothers were all about on the same power level,
at least that Hades and Poseidon were, as they all possessed the capacity to rule any of the
three realms. Either Hades or Poseidon could just as easily have been appointed to the skies.
However, despite this argument, we’re going to exclude Zeus from it because he’s consistently
portrayed throughout Greek mythology as being more powerful than either of his brothers.
Because Hades and Poseidon each had the same level of raw power - this fact extrapolated
from them having the capacity to rule each other’s domains - a battle between them,
then, would be determined by the factors that differentiate them. These factors are domains,
combat abilities, and weapons, and we’re going to address each one, in that order.
First, there's the domains - Hades’ being the underworld and Poseidon’s being the sea.
These are largely irrelevant to this discussion. Hades isn’t going to fight Poseidon in the sea
anymore than Poseidon is going to fight Hades in the underworld. No, they would only seek each
other out to fight on common ground. You see, the earth wasn’t given to any of the brothers.
It was considered sacred, so Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon shared stewardship of it while
ultimately leaving it to Gaia. This means that any battle between Hades and Poseidon
is going to take place on solid ground in the mortal world, negating any overwhelming
advantage that either god could have by the battle taking place where either of them rule.
Let’s do a quick recap: Hades and Poseidon have the same level of raw power
because they each had the capacity to assume rulership of any of the three domains,
which were divided by chance. Hades' underworld powers and Poseidon’s sea powers
are more or less neutralized because any battle between them
would take place on land in the mortal world, nullifying any overwhelming advantage
that either god could have. So far, it looks as though neither god would have any advantage
over the other and that any battle between them would be some protracted contest of attrition.
From here, then, to see who would come out ahead,
we’ll need to turn to two yet unexplored factors, combat ability and weapons.
First let’s look at combat ability.
Poseidon was a force to be reckoned with during the Gigantomachy,
which was the war between the gods and the giants that took place sometime after the war against the
titans. Poseidon was said to have broken off part of a mountain and launched it, striking one of the
giants - each of whom possessed god-like power - down while the giant fled after being overmatched.
By comparison, Hades' wasn’t mentioned in the Gigantomachy. There’s a whole list of giants
being killed by individual gods, but Hades doesn’t make an appearance on that list - at least, not in
the Greek sources I’m familiar with. Similarly, Hades is also absent from the Iliad, another
story Poseidon distinguishes himself in. In the story, Hades is only mentioned a handful of times,
none of them too flattering. One described the incident that had him face off against Hercules.
It wasn’t a duel, really, but Hades was the one who left injured. The two found themselves at
odds when Hercules moved against the city of Pylos, which Hades rose up to defend. Hercules
wounded Hades with an Arrow and sacked the city. Hades retreated to Mt. Olympus for healing.
While Hades was largely absent in the Iliad because he remained in the underworld,
Poseidon championed the Greeks and so was often in the thick of the fighting.
Usually the Trojan army was the target of his wrath, but towards the end of the story, there’s
a conflict in which all of the participating gods converge and fight each other directly. Poseidon
comes face-to-face with Apollo, but Apollo backs down before any blows are exchanged,
cowed by his uncle. But Poseidon’s record was not without its blemishes. He, along with Hera
and Athena, were the three gods who formed an insurgency and bound Zeus in chains, but they
were stopped: Thetis fetched Briareus, one of the three Hecatonchires, who came to deliver
Zeus from his plight. His mere presence daunted the three gods who sought to end Zeus’ rule,
intimidating them so that they abandoned their coup rather than try their combined might against
the strength of Briareus. Here’s a passage that describes what happened after the Hecatonchires
arrived: “ Down he sat, flanking Cronus’ son, [Poseidon,] gargantuan in the glory of it all,
and the blessed gods were struck with terror, then, they stopped shackling Zeus.”
Let’s quickly summarize each gods’ position from the perspective of combat achievements. Poseidon:
pros: he fights in the war against the titans, destroys a giant, intimidates Apollo. Cons: he
is completely subdued by the prospect of Briareus laying hands on him. Hades: pros: he fights in the
war against the titans. Cons: a clash with Hercules leaves him wounded by an arrow.
With the combat exploits tallied, the advantage has to go to Poseidon.
There are no heroics credited to Hades aside from fighting in the Titanomachy.
Also, there's an instance of each god being humbled - Hades by Hercules,
a superlatively powerful mortal with the potency of a god, Poseidon by a Hecatonchires, one of the
most powerful beings in all of Greek mythology - so those, you could say, cancel each other out.
Now we have Hades and Poseidon poised against each other on some distant, land-locked field of
battle, far away from the sea and far away from the underworld. Though they each have the same
level of raw power, Poseidon is the more powerful warrior, a fair statement given how numerous his
combat exploits are in Greek mythology compared to those of Hades. It would appear that Hades
being defeated by Poseidon is a foregone conclusion, an inevitability, but there is
one last factor we’ve only glossed over that could swing the pendulum of advantage to the other side:
the weapons forged by the Cyclopes. Poseidon’s trident allows him to create earthquakes.
Hades’ cap of darkness grants him perfect invisibility. If you wanted to wipe out an army,
I’m sure that being able to create earthquakes would be more useful, but in this situation,
god against god, the cap of darkness might very well be the superior weapon, especially
when used in concert with other armaments forged by either Hephaestus or the Cyclopes.
Without weapons, Hades would get man-handled, but with weapons is another story; with weapons
the duel could go either way. Both Hades and Poseidon are immortal, so the best they can do
is permanently incapacitate each other. To that end, there’s many instances in which beings,
either immortal or mortal with god-like power, are buried under mountains or brought down by enormous
boulders, so the power to sunder the earth and pull down mountains granted by the trident
could be extremely effective. There’s even a quote in the Iliad that describes Hades being
filled with fear when Poseidon shakes the earth. Here it is: “from down below Poseidon shook the
boundless earth and towering heads of mountains. The whole world quaked … And terror-struck in the
underworld, Hades lord of the dead cringed and sprang from his throne and scrambled shrill,
fearing the god who rocks the ground above his realm”. Despite this, the cap of darkness
seems like it would be an absolute nightmare to deal with. Imagine a god as powerful as Hades
running around invisible while dual wielding swords - probably wrought of adamant - that can
slice through divine flesh like a hot knife through butter. Also, what about projectile
weapons like throwing knives and arrows? Having an invisible person throw and shoot those at you
would be almost impossible to stop. Or how about this: Hades shapeshifts into a bird - meaning an
invisible bird - dive bombs Poseidon, and then reverts back to human form at the last second,
delivering a double adamant sword stabbing maneuver at terminal velocity? Anyway,
without weapons, Poseidon would pummel Hades. With weapons, though, who knows. I feel like
that dive bomb attack would be unguardable. An invisible god seems virtually impossible to stop,
but being able to create earthquakes seems like a good counter because the area of effect is
so large that you don’t really need to see the person you’re attacking. Also, huge rocks have
a proven track record of bringing down gods and powerful monsters in Greek mythology.
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Who do you pick? Hades or Poseidon?