Harry (technically) dying? WHOA

[jmgarciaiii]

No: HPFGUIDX 127788


Digging further, I found the following map of the greco-roman 
underworld:

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/000Images/004maps/underworldmap.g
if

In it you will see Charon, the old geezer, ferrying souls across a 
SWAMP (i.e. marsh) like Filch did in Book 5, as well as the journeys 
of Odysseus and Heracles.

Odysseus braved the terrors of the underworld, and while he was 
there, Hades allowed Thiresias, Anticlias--Odysseus' mother(!), Ajax 
and others to give him advice on his next journey. They gave him 
important advice about the Cattle of the Sun (herded by Apollo), 
Scylla & Charybdis and the Sirens. From there on the travels were 
harder for Odysseus, but they would have been much worse of it 
wasn't for the help of the dead.

Heracles descended to the Underworld because his tormentor 
Eurystheus imposed on him the task of capturing and bringing up to 
our world of light Hades' three-headed dog Cerberus. Heracles not 
only found dead souls in the underworld; he also met Theseus and his 
accomplice Pirithous (who had come to Hades, also through the 
entrance at Taenarum, with the damn fool idea of marrying 
Persephone). On account of this great insolence, they were both 
bound to chairs (like in the trial room!) in the Underworld before 
they were dead. Some said Heracles rescued both, others that he 
could only raise Theseus, because when he wished to save Pirithous 
the earth quaked, and he desisted. Still others say neither ever 
returned. (I'm going with the "saved Theseus only" version)

It's not all that certain whether Heracles returned to this world 
through the exit at Troezen, through the one at Hermione (!), the 
exit facing the island of Hydra in eastern Argolis, or through the 
exit at Mount Laphystius in Boeotia. In any case, Heracles came with 
Fluf...er...Cerberus to Mycenae, and after showing it to Eurystheus, 
he carried it back to the Underworld.

More later,

-Joe in SoFla