Dis Pater

A Roman chthonian god of the dead and of the underworld, the riches of the earth, and of fertility. He corresponds to the Greek Pluton. His worship, like that of Proserpina, was first introduced in the early days of the Republic, at the command of the Sibylline Books. Dis Pater had a chapel near the altar of Saturn, and a subterranean altar on the Campus Martius in common with Proserpina. This was only opened when, as at the Secular Games, sacrifices were offered to both. The victims offered thus were black animals.

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