Radamanthys
In Greek mythology, Rhadamantis or Rhadamanthus (in ancient Greek Ῥαδάμανθυς, Rhadamanthys; in Latin Rhadamanthus) was a son of Zeus and Europa and brother of Sarpedon and Minos, king of Crete. He was raised by Asterion. He had two children: Gortis and Erythro.
According to one version, Radamantis ruled Crete before Minos, and endowed the island with an excellent code of laws, which the Spartans were believed to have copied.
Expelled from Crete by his brother Minos, who was jealous of his popularity, he fled to Boeotia, where he married Alcmene. Homer depicts him dwelling on the Champs Elysees.
According to later legends, because of his inflexible integrity he was one of the judges of the dead in Hades, along with Aeacus and Minos. He was supposed to judge the souls of the Easterners, while Aeacus did the same with the Westerners, with Minos having the deciding vote.
It is popular belief that Dante made Radamantis one of the judges of the damned in the Hell part of The Divine Comedy. Actually, there is not a single part in The Divine Comedy that talks about Radamantis, or Rhadamanthus. Dante only shows Minos as judge, completely omitting Aeacus and Radamantis.
However, Virgil gives a brief description of Radamantis' functions as judge of the shadows in book VI of the Aeneid: «The Cretan Rhadamanthus exercises a very harsh empire here. He investigates and punishes fraud and forces men to confess the sins they committed and which they vainly took pleasure in keeping secret, entrusting their expiation to the late moment of death. At the point of pronouncing the sentence, the avenging Tisiphone, armed with a whip, lashes and insults the guilty, and presenting to them with her left hand her fierce serpents, she calls the cruel mob of her sisters [the Furies]. ».