Dīs Pater Dīs Pater Dīs Pater (pronounced ) was a Roman god of the underworld. Dis was originally associated with fertile agricultural land and mineral wealth, and since those minerals came from underground, he was later equated with the chthonic deities Pluto (Hades) and Orcus. "Dīs Pater" was commonly shortened to simply Dīs and this name has since become an alternative name for the underworld or a part of the underworld, such as the City of Dis of Dante's "The Divine Comedy", which comprises Lower Hell. It is often thought that Dīs Pater was also a Celtic god. This confusion arises from
Pluto (mythology) described Pluto as a folkloric supernatural being, "the elrich incubus / in cloke of grene" ("the eldritch incubus in cloak of green"), who appears among the courtiers of Cupid. The name "Pluto" for the classical ruler of the underworld was further established in English literature by Arthur Golding, whose translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (1565) was of great influence on William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Edmund Spenser. Golding translates Ovid's "Dis" as Pluto, a practice that prevails among English translators, despite John Milton's use of the Latin "Dis" in "Paradise Lost". The Christian perception of the classical underworld as Hell influenced