Hades
Greek/Roman
The recent Disney animated feature Hercules got it wrong: Hades did not buy souls and he was not regarded as evil as Christians, Muslims, and Jews regard Satan as evil. Greeks feared him simply because he brought death, an inevitable consequence of being born.
Hades ("the unseen") was part of the Olympian family of gods that included Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. Following the coup d'etat that deposed the pedophage Kronos, the male gods divided the universe among themselves, giving the sky to Zeus, the sea to Poseidon, and the underworld to Hades. (The earth, itself, was to be shared.)
The place where souls went after death came to be known by the name of the god. To distinguish him, the Greeks called him Polydegmon, "the one who receives many guests" because of the steady stream of departed spirits who crossed the River Styx to abide in his sepulchral hostel. He allowed no one to leave his realm (though Sisysphus contrived to escape returning to the land of the living to fetch the ferry toll that he had "forgotten -- Hades saw to it that the crafty king spent eternity rolling a boulder up a hill). Those who offered sacrifices to the gray lord averted their eyes as they did so. To avoid calling his attention, the Romans took to calling him Pluto, "the rich one", for all the gold, silver, copper, and other precious minerals he kept in his realm.
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