Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld and the Roman counterpart most commonly equated with the Greek Hades.
Pluto’s name comes from Greek Plouton, meaning “the wealthy one,” a reference to the riches hidden beneath the earth and to the seeds and crops that emerge from it. This gave the underworld ruler a more positive, abundance-oriented aspect than the fearsome image often associated with Hades. Roman writers also used the names Dis Pater and Orcus for underworld powers, but Pluto is the standard answer to this quiz wording.
His best-known myth concerns Persephone, called Proserpina by the Romans. Pluto’s abduction of her explains the seasonal cycle in later retellings, while her role as queen of the dead connects the underworld with fertility and renewal. In Greek and Roman tradition, the underworld ruler received the realm below after the world was divided among the brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades or Pluto.
A common mix-up is treating Pluto as merely another name for death itself. He was the ruler of the dead and their realm, not the personification of death. The dwarf planet Pluto was named after this mythological figure.