AIDONEUS
1. A lengthened form of Aides and another name for Hades, Pluton, Pluto, Plouton, Dis (Roman), the god of the lower world. (The Iliad of Homer II)
2. A mythical king of the Molossians, the husband of Persephone, and father of Core.
After Theseus, with the assistance of Peirithous, had carried off Helen, and concealed her at Aphidnae, he went with Peirithous to Epeirus to procure for him as a reward Core, the daughter of Aidoneus.
This king thinking the two strangers were well-meaning suitors, offered the hand of his daughter to Peirithous, on condition that he should fight and conquer his dog, which bore the name of Cerberus. But when Aidoneus discovered that they had come with the intention of carrying off his daughter, he had Peirithous killed by Cerberus, and kept Theseus in captivity, who was afterwards released at the request of Heracles.
Eusebius calls the wife of Aidoneus, a daughter of queen Demeter, with whom he had eloped. It is clear that the story about Aidoneus is nothing but the sacred legend of the rape of Persephone, dressed up in the form of a history, and is undoubtedly the work of a late interpreter, or rather destroyer of genuine ancient myths.
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologyFrom A New System; or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology. Volume I
In the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon the chief deity went by the name of [935]Ourchol, the same as Archel and Aides of Egypt, whence came the Ἡρακλης, and Hercules of Greece and Rome. Nonnus, who was deeply read in the mythology of these countries, makes all the various departments of the other Gods, as well as their titles, centre in him. He describes him in some good poetry as the head of all.
