Pluto (mythology) designed a set with a rotating mountain that opened up to reveal Pluto emerging from the underworld; the drawing survives and was the basis for a modern recreation. The tragic descent of the hero-musician Orpheus to the underworld to retrieve his bride, and his performance at the court of Pluto and Proserpina, offered compelling material for librettists and composers of opera (see List of Orphean operas) and ballet. Pluto also appears in works based on other classical myths of the underworld. As a singing role, Pluto is almost always written for a bass voice, with the low vocal range representing
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