“How do you think this deity represents the values of their pantheon and cultural origins?”
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Well, as far as I can tell – the Greeks didn’t like dying.
They would avert their eyes when they made his offerings, he was generally worshiped once a year, and they’d pray to him by banging on the ground~ meaning they *literally* believed he was down there.
Despite his generally chill nature, let Heracles borrow Cerberus, let Eurydice go when Orpheus asked, tends not to cheat on Persephone… the Greeks appeared to fear and avoid him, often calling him names that weren’t “Hades”so as not to arouse suspicion.”Plouton” was a common substitute.
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In his marriage to Persephone, he does kidnap her, which from my reading, is how one generally got their bride. The tradition was that the potential groom (or groom’s family) made a deal with the would-be-bride’s father and then he arrived with a chariot, and took the girl. They all followed to the Groom’s house, where the nuptials were carried out and celebrated. (I’ll put in with you that unless the Bride is in on the deal, there doesn’t seem to be a lot to celebrate.) So in that, the tale seems to reflect society’s workings at the time.
The Lure of Beauty 