This work focuses on the persistence of the 'Gates of Hades' iconographic theme among the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean. The analysis considers both the written tradition and the iconographic evidence surviving in funerary contexts, showing how the idea of the nether world among the eastern civilizations constituted a background for Greek and Etruscan imaginary. The chronological period considered begins with Egyptian tombs of the Ancient Kingdom and moves on to concentrate on the period between the 7th and 5th centuries B. C., when the 'Gates of Hades' theme appears in Etruscan and Lydian necropoleis and on Attic vase painting.