Can you solve the riddle and escape Hades? - Dan Finkel

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The underworld is overcrowded, and Zeus has ordered Hades to let some spirits out. Hades arranges all the souls of the dead in a line before Cerberus. When one of his three heads bites down on the soul in front of it, they’ll get returned to the land of the living. Anyone to the left must stay in Hades forever. Can you pick the right spot and escape the underworld? Dan Finkel shows how.

Lesson by Dan Finkel, directed by Artrake Studio.

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[carlymichelle]

"what place would you choose?"

Me : in cerberus mouth

[hahalord]

"Can you solve this riddle?"

I can't even understand the rules of the riddle

[orangeoddity]

This is the only ted ed puzzle I have ever actually solved.

[FoxCuriousity]

For those that might or might not know, the character used for this puzzle is the cruel trickster, King Sisyphus, who cheated death twice and was punished in the underworld by forever rolling a massive boulder up a steep hill, and never reaching the summit.

[suhangliu]

can i get out of the underworld? i cant even get out of my bed

[tchaguym]

I have been a spy, a cop, an intern, an intergalactical explorer, a pilgrim, a egg thief, a detective, a pirate, a normal explorer, and world saving hero but Sisyphus is a stretch.

[landomt]

I spent 3 seconds thinking about it and was like “Meh, I’d just go with the third spot, ” and for once my lazy thinking actually worked

[jrsdef]

I love how "you" are very clearly Sisyphus, literally the man who got his punishment for trying to defy death and live longer, while it's definitely in character I do think he's probably the one person no Olympian would help in this case, except like in the video Hermes for his respect of his cleverness tricking Thanatos and Persephone, although it would make sense that Hades "forgot" to let him know

[SC-zlgs]

I'm not surprised that Sisyphus wants to escape the underworld again

[shivaargula]

I chose #6 for the same reason. I didn't realize choosing #3 directly was an option, and wanted to maximize odds of getting there. You get 1/3 chance to end up there directly, and two second chances if you fail.

[shapooopiefour]

I like how this implies that you (yes, you, whoever watched the video and and is currently reading this comment) are the king who was clever enough to cheat Hades once, and Hermes wants to see that happen again because he’s a chaotic little guy.

[Scuuurbs]

The 50/50 reasoning escaped me.

I looked at it as, spot 3 was clearly the best, but since there was no way to guarantee you’d end up in spot 3 if you were further back in line, the best option is to immediately place yourself in spot 3.

[Tabby_CatMeow]

“Choose right and he’ll give you the spot! Choose wrong and he’ll leave you to rot“
The best rhyme I’ve ever heard in a while.

[nickadams]

“Each of us has his own way of emerging from the underworld, mine is by comma splicing.”

[kenthegoat]

That arkward moment when cerberus did not bite you in the end

[stephenhall]

"Can you escape the underworld?"
**Eurydice has not left the chat**










You had one job, orpheus

[acerpalmatum]

TEDed: ‘Can you escape Hades?’
Me, who has been playing the video game “Hades” for the past three hours: I’m TRYING

[fiona]

The two Cerberus heads biting at the same time for showing the rules was so flawless

[pityesz]

I thought the solution is to realize that you can only "die" if the dog bites someone behind you. So you can choose to be in the last place in the queue, so whenever you reach the podiums, there won't be any souls behind you, so sooner or later (maximum of 3 bites) the dog will eat you, of course it only works if the dog isn't biting at empty podiums.

[GeneralGrivas]

I didn't realize one of the three spots was part of "the line".