I know about the five mythological rivers of the underworld, and most of their characteristics:
Kokytos (Cocytus) - The frozen river. Dante adapted this as a lake in Inferno, and made it the place of punishment for traitors.
Lethe - The river of forgetfulness.
Styx - The border of the Underworld. A ferry operated by Charon carried souls across the river and into Hades.
Phlegethon - The river of fire which burns but never consumes. Dante made this the place of punishment for violent sinners.
Acheron - The river of woe. Dante made this river the border of the Underworld in Inferno.
My question is: why is Acheron called the River of Woe? What myths reference this river or its characteristics? I can find myths that at least mention all the other rivers, but to date, I can’t find one that features Acheron or the reason for its moniker.
Upon death a soul is lead by Hermes to the entrance of the underworld and the ferry across the Acheron
Maybe that’s why it’s called the River of Woe? It’s the first River crossed when you die.
It is thought that Charon, the old ferry man who ferries the dead onto the underworld, crosses the river
Styx where the dragon tailed dog Cerberus guards, allowing all souls to enter but none to leave. This is a
misconception, Charon crosses the river Acheron where also Cerebus stands his eternal guard.
This seems a bit unclear to me. Where exactly does Cerebus guard? Or is this one of those ineffable metaphysical things where logic doesn’t apply, and Cerebus actually guards at both locations? Thoughts?
From the link, it appears that Cerberus guards both rivers. One thing to remember about Greek Mythology (or most mythology) is that different stories arose at different times and later writers created their own versions of each tale for their own purposes.
If you wander through http://www.pantheon.org you will find a lot of places where it says something like “person A was the child of X and Z (or of M and Z in a different version).”
(Similar stories appear in the Jewish and Christian literature with the two different Creation stories, the two different flood stories, and the two separate genealogies of Jesus. However, we have had a couple thousand years to clean up or explain away the inconsistencies. The Greeks, (Romans, Norse, Egyptians, etc.) all had their mythologies captured in time by the onset (onslaught?) of Christianity, so their mythology appears more fragmented and less cohesive.
Thank you, tevya and tomndebb. The help is appreciated. I should have realized that different translations and versions exist for every story ever told.
Also, I must apologize for calling Cerberus “Cerebus.” I’m a Dave Sim fan, you see, and it just slipped out. Imagine a surly gray aardvark with a sword guarding the entrance to the underworld.
What if you didn’t have a coin to give to Charon? What difference did they think it made whether you were a wandering shade, not actually even conscious, on this side or on that side of Acheron (or Styx)?
Well, Charon could refuse you passage for 100 years, so it was sort of an unpleasant limbo. And I believe that whether you were fully conscious or not, you were aware enough to feel pain, pleasure, or loss. After all, if you couldn’t experience any sensation, why bother with Sisyphus’s or Tantalus’s punishment? For that matter, why bother with having a place of reward (Elysian Fields)?
In other words when it comes to mythology, nothing bears close examination. Evidently these stories tell what they tell and there is little point in working out any of the implications.
I forgot to mention that the other side of the Styx or of Acheron isn’t the Elysian Fields, it’s where you wander as a shade. To get the dead spirits to remember anything or talk, Odysseus has to make a blood sacrifice. The souls drink the blood and come back to consciousness. They’re all across the river, so that’s why I’m wondering what difference it makes whether you are on one side or the other. Where Elysium fits in I have no idea unless it is the same as that place they sent Cronus, but there aren’t very many people there. The Aeneid I’m not familiar with, but in the Odyssey dead Achilles says he would rather be a live servant than a dead king. The shades just float around unconscious unless they get a blood sacrifice, and then are active for awhile. Similar to the underworld of the ancient Babylonians where you eat dust and both kings and servants are there. I guess all peoples also had a nice heavenly afterlife too, but the main one in literature is the depressing one.