Hades, or the greek Underworld

If one looks at the sky in a full moonlight, a vague resemblance with Plato's Allegory of the Cave comes to mind, since, as during night, shades and deceptive appearances prevail, due to a dim source of Light.

Furthermore, as Plato and various neoplatonists hint in their writings, the sublunary realm, i.e, below the moon, is the realm of Hades per se, of which Hades is the personification and Dionysus the monad or beginning.1

"every soul, whether without mind, or joined to mind, on departing from the body, is ordained to wander in the region lying between the moon and earth for a term, not equal in all cases; but the wicked and incontinent pay a penalty for their sins; whereas the virtuous, in order, as it were, to purify themselves and to recover breath, after the body, as being the source of sinful pollution, must pass a certain fixed time in the mildest region of air, which they call the “Meadow of Hades.” Plutarch, On the Face Which Appears on the Orb of the Moon

Now why would Plutarch, the High Priest of Delphi, write that Hades is situated between the Moon and the Earth?

Because as Plato writes in the Gorgias and Cratylus, soma, body, is equal to sema, grave or tomb (Soma-Sema) a pythagorean and orphic teaching.

So why is it Hades said to be underground? Because the soul, as the Dream of Scipio demonstrates2, dwelt originally above the Moon, the Celestial or True Earth (Demeter)3, as Plutarch calls it, and that below the moon is the realm of decay and death, of what is mortal, which is Hades, the kingdom of the dead, for the soul when it descends to Earth and incarnates, drinking from the waters of Oblivion (Lethe), is as good as dead (Thanatos), and in deep sleep (Hypnos), unaware of its heavenly origin, and now with irrational traits, a heavy body, irascible and negative destructive emotions, uncontrolable desires and apettites, in short, spiritual ignorance and darkness or Spiritual Death.

Therefore, all the rivers and pools related to the underworld are situated in this region, the river Lether (forgetfulness) signifying both the downward motion of souls into the body, forgeting their spiritual origin, and the upward motion of the soul by which it forgets the physical sufferings; and the pool of Mnemosyne (remembrance) of which souls drank both after physical death and also while physically alive, enabling them to recall their original existence.

Names of locations or states in the underworld may vary, since there was a great variety of religious expression, which varied from place to place, so ancient authors were quite free to change their nomenclature. Now you may wonder 'this belongs to mytholgy'. But as is shown by the neoplatonists, mythologists such as Homer and Hesiod were in fact theologians, expressing their knowledge in the veiled form of mythology. The Elysian Fields for example became conflated with the Isle of the Blessed, field to mean a temporary stop or dwelling, and isle to mean an isolated dwelling also, apart from the main land (Earth), and river to mean a flow, a movement, just as the motion from birth to death, from death to highest regions of Hades, and from thence down again into it depths of Hades or Tartarus.

So it is that what is meant by sublunary realm actually comprises both the physical realm, of which the Earth is the metaphor, and also the atmospheric part up to the moon, to signify the etheric counterpart of the physical realm, in the same way that Theosophy and hindu philosophy calls it the etheric counterpart of the physical, the realm of Pranamaya Kosha or Linga Sharira, Dyau Loka, Pitru Loka, Antariksha, Bhuvar Loka etc... and as the Dream of Scipio and Plutarch tell us, the moon being the Celestial Earth.

Moon

Atmosphere + Earth } Hades

It is interesting to note that in the Myth of Er in Plato's Republic, when Er and the other souls arrived at a place where there was two passages from above and two from below, the souls that were considered wicked were quickly sent down to Tartarus, which is ACTUALLY THE PLACE FROM WHERE THEY HAVE COME FROM IN THE FIRST PLACE, but people since the early days of Plato's study seem to have ignored or been unaware of this detail.

Notes: 

1 - "Orpheus therefore calls the impartible essence of Bacchus intellect. But he denominates the life which is divisible about body, which is physical, and pregnant with seeds, the genitals of the God. And he says that Diana who presides over all the generation in nature, and is the midwife of physical productive principles, extends these genitals, distributing as far as to subterranean natures, the prolific power of the God. But all the remaining body of Bacchus was, he says, the psychical essence, this also being divided into seven parts. For they divided all the seven parts of the body, says the theologist, speaking of the Titans; just as Timæus divides the soul into seven parts. And perhaps Timæus, when he says that soul is extended through the whole world, will remind the followers of Orpheus of the Titanic division, through which soul is not only spread round the universe like a veil, but is also extended through it. Very properly therefore, does Plato call the essence which is proximately above soul, an impartible essence. And in short, he thus denominates the intellect which is participated by soul, following the Orphic fables, and wishing to be as it were an interpreter of what is said in the mysteries” And thus much concerning Bacchus, or the monad of the mundane Gods." Proclus, On the Theology of Plato, Book VII, 33

Bacchus is obviously another name of Dionysus. But why the identification with Hades, as Heraclitus also wrote "For if it were not to Dionysus that they made the procession and sung the hymn to the shameful parts, the deed would be most shameless; but Hades and Dionysus, for whom they rave and celebrate Lenaean rites, are the same." (DK B15)? 

Because, first, Hades is the Sublunary Realm per se, as Plutarch demonstrated in "On the Face of the Moon". 

Second, Proclus ascribes to the monad of sublunary gods Dionysus, as shown above.

Third, as Plutarch hints in his Moralia, Dionysus and Hades are the same only in the respect that the whole of the sublunary realm is the creation of Dionysus, or better, the result of the unfolding or dismemberement of Dionsysus' body, of which his heart is the monad of, and the rest of his body, as Proclus says above, his titanical distribution, that is, he is both titan or titanical, divisive, and unifying or monadic.

"This deity also is the monad of the Titans, or ultimate fabricators of things, by whom he is said in divine fables to have been torn in pieces; because the mundane soul which participates of this divinity, and is on this account intellectual, is participated by the Titans, and through them distributed into every part of the universe. Plato in the Cratylus says of this divinity “that he is the giver of wine; and that οιονος wine may most justly be denominated οιονους because it is accustomed to deprive those of intellect who possessed it before”" Proclus On the Theology of Plato, Book VII, 33

And lastly, as Proclus writes above, Dionysus is the giver of wine, and wine signifies that which deprives souls of intellect, that is, intoxication with the senses and desires, emotions and thoughts stimulated by them (which are also a sign of dionysical distribution, since awareness is distributed in the several sensory perceptions, emotions and thoughts), and amnesia of previous lives or of its heavenly origin, which again brings us to the concept of Spiritual Death, or Hades, and that is why they are equated.

2 - "Now below these there is nothing more but what is mortal and transient except those souls which the bounty of the Gods has given to the sons of men; above the moon all is eternal. As for the earth, the ninth and central globe, it does not move but is the lowest point, and towards it all heavy bodies tend by their own gravity." Dream Of Scipio

3 - "The power of the earth, both the celestial and terrestrial earth, they called Isis, because of the equality, which is the source of justice: but they call the moon the celestial earth, and the vegetative earth, on which we live, they call the terrestrial." Porphyry, On Cult Images

"We men are far from thinking the moon, which is a celestial earth, to be a body without life, and without mind, and destitute of those things which the gods have a right to enjoy, when we, by law, pay the requital for her blessings, and naturally respect that which is superior in virtue and in power, and therefore to be respected." Plutarch, On the Face of the Moon, Chapter 21

 

and also Proclus, On the Timaeus of Plato, pages 97-98: 

"The Pythagoreans said that the elements are seen in the heavens in two ways: in one way above the sun, but in another way after the sun. For the moon is an ethereal earth. Certainly the Theologian has also stated this quite clearly: 

‘‘Another limitles Earth he resolved to make 

Which immortals laud as Selene, 

but mortal men the Moon Having many mountains, 

many cities, many dwellings.’’ 

[Orph. fr. 91 Kern]

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