Wasn't Hades supposed to be one of the better of the gods though? Really other than abducting Persephone (and apparently back in ancient times that wasn't an uncommon form of marriage in the Mediterranean until Constantine illegalized it) he didn't go around raping and impregnating mortals like the rest of the male gods did, or transforming people into monsters or cursing them like the female Olympians did. And he even gave Orpheus a fair chance to get his lover out of the underworld when he came to him and pleaded his case.
Yes and no. Hades was not a favorite god of the Greeks, who didn't even want to say his name and would avert their eyes when sacrificing to him, said to "enrich himself with our sighs and our tears" by Sophocles, and, in
The Iliad, Agamemnon describes him saying "Why do we loathe Hades more than any god, if not because he is so adamantine and unyielding?".
Not only were the Greeks terrified of death, and by default, of Hades as well, but they also knew it was almost
impossible to sweet-talk him out of doing something, because, unlike most of the other
theoi, he was so stern and no nonsense and took his job seriously. It's not that he was better because he was nice, but because he was
just and fair. It was hard to bargain with him, but when it worked, he was more than willing to be helpful and always held his hand of the bargain. He helped Orpheus, but also Sisyphus (when he didn't know he was being tricked), and Heracles when he had to capture Cerberus. He also frequently lent his helm of invisibility. But it was when people crossed him (like Sisyphus and Pirithous) or tried to cheat death (again Sisyphus, but also Asclepius) that he got
really angry.
As for Persephone, the various circumstances for her abduction makes it tricky. First, the word "rape" in the ancient world had a different meaning, that is simply "forceful abduction" that might or might not include sexual assault. And in some versions, it might be that Hades simply desired a bride and petitioned his brother Zeus to grant him one of his daughters, and it's
Zeus who gave him Persephone and told him to abduct her to circumvent Demeter instead of simply
asking her for her daughter's hand. Finally, the abduction story might be a later addition: the story of her being carried off by Hades against her will is not mentioned by Homer, one of her earliest mentions, who simply describes her in
The Iliad and
The Odyssey as Hades' wife and queen, who exercises her power in the Underworld alongside her husband and carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. Her abduction is indeed first mentioned by Hesiod in his
Theogony, but since both it and Homer's works were written in the same century, there is no telling which is older.
At least, despite the murky circumstances of their wedding, Hades was faithful to her, with the earliest known versions of his myths being never described with anyone but Persephone. There are two stories of infidelity on separate occasions, with the nymphs Leuce and Minthe, but they seem to be later, Roman additions. Persephone also has a tryst with Adonis in other myths anyway.
I want to stress out that
I do not want to excuse the fact that Persephone was most likely taken, physically and sexually, against her will, even if it later became a marriage between two equal partners. Last thing I want is to excuse the Ancient Greeks' rape culture. Rather, I am pointing out the fluid canonicity of such myths and how they can allow different interpretations. I personally suscribe to the headcanon of Overly Sarcastic Productions and its view of their relationship as loving for example (as well as the headcanon for Atalanta and Hippomenes).
Unrelatedly:
Shouldn't Leucosia call her Kore, since that was her old name as the goddess of spring?