Hades is the god of the Underworld. He’s about 10 feet tall and exudes power. He’s lithe and pale, and he wears black silk robes embroidered with pained faces. Hades’s face reminds Percy of those of dictators like Hitler. Despite his evil looks and the fact that he’s the lord of the Underworld, Hades also struggles with very human problems: he runs the Underworld singlehandedly, and so he’s the one to deal with the increase in deaths resulting from Earth’s growing population. This causes traffic jams, staffing issues, and money problems, all of which annoy Hades to no end. He also feels overlooked by the other gods and so doesn’t say anything when his magical object, the helm of darkness, goes missing—but he believes that Percy has it. Though Hades is unwilling to change his stance and continues to insist that Percy is the one trying to frame him and start a war, he does show himself to be honorable when he returns Mom as promised after Percy gets Hades’s helm back from Ares. Percy also realizes that Hades probably feels understandably bitter since he’s only allowed in Olympus once per year, during the winter solstice.
