Plutus

• Plutus, the god of riches, Phaedr. 4, 12, 5.

(Πλοῦτος), sometimes also called Pluton (Aristoph. Pl. 727), the personification of wealth, is described as a son of Iasion and Demeter (Hes. Th. 969, &c.; Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 491, Od. 5.125). Zeus is said to have blinded him, in order that he might not bestow his favours on righteous men exclusively, but that he might distribute his gifts blindly and without any regard to merit (Aristoph. Pl. 90; Schol. ad Theocrit. 10.19). At Thebes there was a statue of Tyche, at Athens one of Eirene, and at Thespiae one of Athena Ergane; and in each of these cases Plutus was represented as the child of those divinities, symbolically expressing the sources of wealth (Paus. 9.16.1, 26.5). Hyginus (Poet. Astr. 2.4) calls him the brother of Philomelus. He seems to have commonly been represented as a boy with a Cornucopia. (Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. ii. p. 105, &c.) [L.S]

(Πλοῦτος). The Greek personification of riches; born in Crete as the son of Demeter and her beloved Iasion or Iasius, whom Zeus, out of jealousy, killed with lightning. He was supposed to have been blinded by Zeus, so that he might distribute his gifts without choice ( Plut. 90). In Thebes and Athens he was represented as a child on the arm of Tyche and of Irene (q.v.) (Pausan. i. 8, 2; ix. 16, 2; ix. 26, 8).