In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Plutus (; ) is the god and the personification of wealth, and the son of the goddess of agriculture Demeter and the mortal Iasion.

Family

Plutus is most commonly the son of Demeter and Iasion, with whom she lay in a thrice-ploughed field. He is alternatively the son of the fortune goddess Tyche.

Two ancient depictions of Plutus, one of him as a little boy standing with a cornucopia before Demeter, and another inside the cornucopia being handed to Demeter by a goddess rising out of the earth, perhaps implying that he had been born in the Underworld, were interpreted by Karl Kerenyi to mean that Plutus was supposed to be the son of Hades and Persephone, the king and the queen of the Underworld, though no such version is attested in any primary source.

In the arts

thumb|Polychrome marble statue depicting the goddess [[Tyche holding the infant Plutus in her arms, 2nd century AD, Istanbul Archaeological Museum.]]

[[File:S03 06 01 020 image 2538.jpg|thumb| Sencathea [?] [Female figure] feeding infant Plutus from horn of plenty, relief, Rome. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection.]]

In the philosophized mythology of the later Classical period, Plutus is envisaged by Aristophanes as blinded by Zeus, so that he would be able to dispense his gifts without prejudice; he is also lame, as he takes his time arriving, and winged, so he leaves faster than he came. When the god's sight is restored, in Aristophanes' comedy, he is then able to determine who is deserving of wealth, creating havoc.

Phaedrus records a fable where, after Hercules is received in Olympus, he greets all the gods but refuses to greet Plutus. When the king of gods Jupiter asks him why, he replies that he hates the god of riches due to Plutus favouring the wicked and the corrupt.

Etymology

Like many other figures in Greek and Roman mythology, Plutus' name is related to several English words. These include:

  • Plutocracy, rule by the wealthy, and plutocrat, one who rules by virtue of wealth
  • Plutonomics, the study of wealth management
  • Plutolatry, the "worship" of money
  • Plutomania, an excessive desire for wealth

See also

  • Chrysus
  • Kubera
  • Mammon
  • Ploutonion
  • Pluto (mythology)

Notes

References

  • Aristophanes, Plutus (Wealth), in Aristophanes, Frogs, Assemblywomen, Wealth, edited and translated by Jeffrey Henderson, Loeb Classical Library No. 180, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2002. Online version at Harvard University Press. .
  • Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume III: Books 4.59-8, translated by C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library No. 340. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1939. . Online version at Harvard University Press. Online version by Bill Thayer.
  • Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. .
  • Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Hyginus, Gaius Julius, De astronomia, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. Online version at ToposText.
  • Kerényi, Karl (1967), Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, Princeton University Press, 1991. .
  • Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007. .
  • The Oxford Classical Dictionary, second edition, Hammond, N.G.L. and Howard Hayes Scullard (editors), Oxford University Press, 1992. .