Mystai in Hades, etc.). Aiakos is ~kleidou=chos~ of Hades; [Apollod.] 3, 12, 6, 10; _Epigr. Gr._, 646, 4; _P. Mag. Par._ 1264 ff.; ~pulôro/s~ (cf. Hades himself as ~pula/rtês~, ~Th~ 368) in Luc., _D. Mort._ 13, 3; 20, 1, 6; 22, 3; _De Luct._ 4; _Philops._ 25 and Philostr., _VA._ 7, 31, p. 385 K. "Holder of the Key" is an office of high distinction (suggested in the case of Aiakos perhaps by the cult offered to him together with chthonic powers): keys belong to many of the gods--Plouton himself, Paus. 5, 20, 3, and others; see Tafel and Dissen on Pi., _P._ 8, 4; in _P. Mag. Par._ 1403 comes the trimeter, ~kleidou=che Perse/phassa Tarta/rou ko/rê~. It is difficult to believe that the attribution of this remarkable office of distinction to Aiakos was a later invention than the apparently commonplace office of judge. It seems, in fact, that Eurip. in the _Peirithoos_ (_fr._ 591 N.) made Aiakos the first to meet Herakles as he entered Hades, i.e. probably at the gate itself. It can hardly be anything but a {248} reminiscence of Eurip. that suggested (not to Aristoph. himself--see Hiller, _Hermes_ viii, 455--but to a well-read _grammaticus_) the name "Aiakos" as that of the person who meets Herakles at the very gate of Plouton in the _Frogs_ (l. 464). Just because the story of Aiakos' position as holder of the key at the gate of Hades was an old one and mentioned by respected authorities, the belief in his position as judge never quite prevailed, in spite of Plato.] [14\7: This is obviously Attic invention. Plato certainly mentions Triptolemos in _addition_ to Minos and the other judges. But it seems that to the Athenians Minos was unacceptable as a type of justice (he was, especially on the stage, the object of bitter attacks as an enemy of the country; see Plu., _Thes._ 16). and they tried to _substitute_ their own Triptolemos for him in the triad of judges. Thus we find Triptolemos not beside Minos but in his place in a picture of the underworld on a vase from Altamura (Tript. Aiak. Rhad.), and in an analogous picture on an amphora at Karlsruhe (Aiak. Tript., the left side is broken off but prob. represented Rhadamanthys not Minos). Cf. Winkler, _Darst. d. Unterwelt auf unterital. Vasen_, p. 37. For the rest, nothing suggests that the three judges on these vase-pictures pass judgment on the deeds of men done in their _lifetime_: in strictness nothing is implied about their giving judgments. What is certain is simply that they, as types of justice, ~epi\ tai=si tou= Plou/tônos oikou=sin thu/rais~ (like the Mystai in Ar., _Ra._ 163): they enjoy the rights of ~pa/redoi~ of the divine pair, and hence they are _seated_ on ~thro/noi~ or ~di/phroi~.]