1. a proper name, Hades, Pluto, the god of the lower regions; so in Homer always.

2. an appellative, Orcus, the nether world, the realm of the dead (cf: Theocritus, idyll. 2,159 schol. τήν τοῦ ᾅδου κρούει πύλην. τουτ' ἔστιν ἀποθανεῖται. In the Sept. the Hebrew שְׁאול is almost always rendered by this word (once by θάνατος, 2 Samuel 22:6); it denotes, therefore, in Biblical Greek Orcus, the infernal regions, a dark (Job 10:21) and dismal place (but cf. γέεννα and παράδεισος) in the very depths of the earth (Job 11:8; Isaiah 57:9; Amos 9:2, etc.; see ἄβυσσος), the common receptacle of disembodied spirits: Luke 16:23; εἰς ᾅδου namely, δόμον, Acts 2:27, 31, according to a very common ellipsis, cf. Winers Grammar, 592 (550) (Buttmann, 171 (149)); (but L T Tr WH in Acts 2:27 and T WH in both verses read εἰς ᾅδην; so the Sept. Psalm 15:10 ()); πύλαι ᾅδου, Matthew 16:18 (πυλωροί ᾅδου, Job 38:17; see πύλη); κλείς τοῦ ᾅδου, Revelation 1:18; Hades as a power is personified, 1 Corinthians 15:55 (where L T Tr WH read θάνατε for R G ᾅδῃ (cf. Acts 2:24 Tr marginal reading)); Revelation 6:8; Revelation 20:13f. Metaphorically, ἕως ᾅδου καταβαίνειν or) καταβιβάζεσθαι to (go or) be thrust down into the depth of misery and disgrace: Matthew 11:23 (here L Tr WH καταβαίνειν); Luke 10:15 (here Tr marginal reading WH text καταβαίνειν). (See especially Boettcher, De Inferis, under the word ἀϊδής in Greek index. On the existence and locality of Hades cf. Greswell on the Parables, Appendix, chapter x, vol. v, part ii, pp. 261-406; on the doctrinal significance of the word see the BB. DD. [Hades] and E. R. Craven in Lange on Revelation, pp. 364-377.)