Harrowing of Hell refers not merely to the idea that Christ descended into Hell, as in the Creed, but to the rich tradition that developed later, asserting that he triumphed over "inferos", releasing Hell's captives, particularly Adam and Eve, and the righteous men and women of the Old Testament period. In Classical mythology Hades is the underworld inhabited by departed souls and the god Pluto is its ruler. The New Testament uses the term "Hades" to refer to the abode or state of the dead. In some places it seems to represent a neutral place where the dead awaited the death, burial, and
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