Plutus

God of wealth. Plutus was the son of the corn goddess Demeter and the mortal Iasion.

Iasion was the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Electra, which made Iasion the brother of Dardanus, ancestor of the Trojan people. Iasion was a farmer from the island of Samothrace, whom Demeter had fallen in love with. Iasion made love to the goddess on a thrice-plowed field. Zeus killed his own son for sleeping with the goddess, but Demeter had already fallen pregnant. Demeter gave birth to Plutus.

Plutus was usually seen in art together with Demeter and Persephone as a boy holding in his hand either a cornucopia or stalks of grains. According to one source, Plutus was the son of Hades and Persephone. Plutus was worshipped as one of the deities in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Originally, he was god of wealth, but it meant the wealth or abundance of crops or grain. Later, the wealth also meant precious metals and stones. To prevent Plutus from bestowing wealth to one person or another as he chose, Zeus blinded the young god so that he would give wealth to a person, no matter whether the person was good or wicked.