90482 Orcus objects with a similar size and orbit to that of Pluto are named after underworld deities. Accordingly, the discoverers suggested naming the object after "Orcus", the Etruscan god of the underworld and punisher of broken oaths. He was portrayed in paintings in Etruscan tombs as a hairy, bearded giant. The name was also a private reference to the homonymous Orcas Island, where Brown's wife Diane had lived as a child and that they visit frequently. On March 30, 2005, Orcus's companion, Vanth, was named after a winged female demon of the Etruscan underworld. She could be present at the moment
Gate deities of the underworld only to the souls capable of pronouncing the secret name of the god himself, as a sort of "password". The walls of many Pharaonic tombs in the Valley of the Kings are decorated with the texts of the Book of Gates, which describes the twelve gates or pylons of the underworld: in spite of being imagined as architectural barriers to all intents and purposes, the gates were individually named as goddesses. Chapter 144 of the Book of the Dead mentions seven gates, each with its own God, a Doorkeeper and a Herald: for example, the 7th gate is guarded by