King of the underworld and the dead. He is also a god of wealth. His consort is Persephone. His attributes are the drinking horn or cornucopia, key, sceptre, and the three-headed dog Cerberus. His sacred animals include the screech owl. He was one of three sons of Cronus and Rhea, and thus sovereign over one of the three realms of the universe, the underworld. As a chthonic god, however, his place among the Olympians is ambiguous. In the mystery religions and Athenian literature, Plouton ("the Rich one") was his preferred name, because of the idea that all riches came from the earth. The term Hades was used in this literature to refer to the underworld itself.