Plutus

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In Greek mythology, Plutus ("wealth") was a son of Demeter and the Titan Iasion and was the personification of wealth. He was 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, as he leaves faster than he came. He is associated with Hades and often portrayed with a horn of plenty (sometimes known as a cornucopia).

Plutus, by the Ancient Greek comedy playwrite Aristophanes, tells a story where the god's sight is restored. He is then able to determine who is deserving of wealth.

In Lucian of Samosata's satirical dialogue Timon, Ploutus, the very embodiment of worldly goods written up in a parchment will, says to Hermes:

"it is not Zeus who sends me, but Pluto, who has his own ways of conferring wealth and making presents; Pluto and Plutus are not unconnected, you see. When I am to flit from one house to another, they lay me on parchment, seal me up carefully, make a parcel of me and take me round. The dead man lies in some dark corner, shrouded from the knees upward in an old sheet, with the cats fighting for possession of him, while those who have expectations wait for me in the public place, gaping as wide as young swallows that scream for their mother's return."

Etymology and Plutus

Like many other figures in Greek and Roman mythology, Plutus' name leads to many modern words. These include:

Plutocracy: Rule by the wealthiest

Plutocrat: Wealthy ruler

Plutolatry: the worship of lucre

Plutomania: the delusion that one is immensely wealthy

Character in Dante's Divine Comedy

In Canto VII of Dante's Divine Comedy, Plutus (Pluto in the original Italian) is a wolf-like demon of wealth which guards over the fourth circle of hell, the hoarders and the wasters.da:Plutos de:Der Reichtum fr:Ploutos pl:Plutos uk:Плутос (п'єса)