User:Paul August/Styx

Styx

To Do

• Hard
• Fowler
• Brill's New Pauly
• Loeb search

New text

The Arcadian Styx

Styx, along with the underworld rivers Cocytus and Acheron, were associated with waterways in the upper world. For example according to Homer, the river Titaressus, a tributary of the river Peneius in Thessaly, was a branch of the Styx. However Styx has been most commonly associated with an Arcadian stream and waterfall (the Mavronéri) that runs through a ravine on the North face of mount Chelmos and flows into the Krathis river. The fifth-century BC historian Herodotus, locates this stream—calling it "the water of Styx"—as being near Nonacris a town (in what was then ancient Arcadia and now modern Achaea) not far from Pheneus, and says that the Spartan king Cleomenes, would make men take oaths swearing by its water. Herodotus describes it as "a stream of small appearance, dropping from a cliff into a pool; a wall of stones runs round the pool". Pausanias reports visiting the "water of the Styx" near Nonacris (which at the time of his visit, in the second century AD, was already a partially-buried ruins), saying that:

Not far from the ruins is a high cliff; I know of none other that rises to so great a height. A water trickles down the cliff, called by the Greeks the water of the Styx.

According to Aelian, Demeter caused the water of this Arcadian Styx "to well up in the neighbourhood of Pheneus". An ancient legend apparently also connected Demeter with this Styx. According to Photius, a certain Ptolemy Hephaestion (probably referring to Ptolemy Chennus) knew of a story, "concerning the water of the Styx in Arcadia", which told how an angry Demeter had turned the Styx's water black. According to James George Frazer, this "fable" provided an explanation for the fact that, from a distance, the waterfall appears black.

Water from this Styx was said to be poisonous and able to dissolve most substances. The first-century natural philosopher Pliny, wrote that drinking its water caused immediate death, and that the hoof of a female mule was the only material not "rotted" by its water. According to Plutarch the poisonous water could only be held by an ass's hoof, since all other vessels would "be eaten through by it, owing to its coldness and pungency." While according to Pausanias, the only vessel that could hold the Styx's water (poisonous to both men and animals) was a horse's hoof. There were ancient suspicions that Alexander the Great's death was caused by being poisoned with the water of this Styx.

The Arcadian Styx may have been named so after its mythological counterpart, but it is also possible that this Arcadian stream was the model for the mythological Styx. The latter seems to be the case, at least, for the Styx in Apuleius's Metamorphoses, which has Venus, addressing Psyche, give the following description:

Do you see that steep mountain-peak standing above the towering cliff? Dark waves flow down from a black spring on that peak and are enclosed by the reservoir formed by the valley nearby, to water the swamps of Styx and feed the rasping currents of Cocytus.

That Apuleius has his "black spring" being guarded by dragons, also suggests a connection between his Styx and two modern local names for the waterfall: the Black Water (Mavro Nero) and the Dragon Water (Drako Nero).

Sources

Ancient

Aelian

De Natura Animalium

10.40

In Scythia there are Asses with horns, and these horns hold water from the river of Arcadia known as the Styx; all other vessels the water cuts through, even though they be made of iron. Now one of these horns, they say, was brought by Sopater to Alexander of Macedon, and I learn that he in his admiration set up the horn as a votive offering to the Pythian god at Delphi, with this inscription beneath it:

‘In thine honour, O God of Healing, Alexander of Macedon set up this horn from a Scythian ass, a marvellous piece, which was not subdued by the untainted stream of the Lusean^b Styx but with stood the strength of its water.’

It was Demeter who caused this water to well up in the neighbourhood of Pheneus, and the reason for it I have stated elsewhere.^b

b Lusi, a town in northern Arcadia.

c In no surviving work.

Aeschylus

Seven Against Thebes

854–860

with double lamentation [I now behold(?)] this twin disaster; the sad event is fulfilled, a double death by kindred hands. What shall I say? What else but that suffering is a resident in the house? Friends, with the wind of lamentation in your sails ply in accompaniment the regular beating of hands on head, which is for ever crossing the Acheron,

Alcaeus

fr. 38A Campbell [= P. Oxy. 1233 fr. 1 ii 8–20 + 2166(b)1 = fr. 38A Lobel-Page = fr. 78 Diehl]

Drink and get drunk, Melanippus, with me. Why do you suppose that when you have crossed the great river of eddying (?) Acheron you will see again the

Apollodorus

1.2.2

Now to the Titans were born offspring: to Ocean and Tethys were born Oceanids, to wit, Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis;

1.2.4

... and to Pallas and Styx were born Victory, Dominion, Emulation, and Violence.¹⁵

15 For this brood of abstractions, the offspring of Styx and Pallas, see Hes. Th. 383ff.; Hyginus, Fab. p. 30, ed. Bunte.

1.2.5

But Zeus caused oaths to be sworn by the water of Styx, which flows from a rock in Hades, bestowing this honor on her because she and her children had fought on his side against the Titans.¹⁶

16 Compare Hes. Th. 389-403ff. As to the oath by the water of Styx, see further Hes. Th. 775ff.; compare Hom. Il. 15.37ff., Hom. Od. 5.186; HH Apoll. 86ff.

1.3.1

...by Styx [Zeus] had Persephone⁵;

5. According to the usual account, the mother of Persephone was not Styx but Demeter. See Hes. Th. 912ff.; HH Dem. 1ff.; Paus. 8.37.9; Hyginus, Fab. p. 30, ed. Bunt

Apuleius

Metamorphoses

6.13

[Venus to Psyche:] But I shall now seriously put you to the test to find out if you really are endowed with courageous spirit and singular intelligence. Do you see that steep mountain-peak standing above the towering cliff? Dark waves flow down from a black spring on that peak and are enclosed by the reservoir formed by the valley nearby, to water the swamps of Styx and feed the rasping currents of Cocytus. Draw me some of the freezing liquid from there, from the innermost bubbling at the top of the spring, and bring it to me quickly in this phial.’ With that she handed her a small vessel hewn out of crystal, and added some harsher threats for good measure.

6.14

A towering rock of monstrous size, precariously jagged and inaccessible, belched from its stony jaws hideous streams, which issuing immediately from the chinks of a vertical opening flowed down over the slopes. Then, concealed in the path of a narrow channel that it had furrowed out for itself, the water slipped unseen down into the neighbouring valley. To right and left fierce snakes crawled out of the pitted crags, snakes which stretched out long necks, their eyes pledged to unblinking wakefulness and their pupils keeping nightwatch in ceaseless vision. And now even the water was defending itself, for it could talk, and it repeatedly cried out: ‘Go away!’ ‘What are you doing? Look out!’ ‘What are you up to? Be careful!’ ‘Run!’ ‘You will die!’ In her utter helplessness Psyche was transformed into stone. Although present in the body, she had taken leave of her senses, and, completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of her inescapable danger, she lacked even the last solace of tears.

6.15

‘Do you,’ he began, ‘naive and inexperienced as you are in such matters, really expect to be able to steal, or even touch, a single drop from that holiest—and cruelest—of springs? Even the gods and Jupiter himself are frightened of these Stygian waters. You must know that, at least by hearsay, and that, as you swear by the powers of the gods, so the gods always swear by the majesty of the Styx.

Arrian

Anabasis of Alexander

7.27

I am aware, of course, that there are many other versions recorded of Alexander’s death; for instance, that Antipater sent him a drug, of which he died, and that it was made up for Antipater by Aristotle, as he had already come to fear Alexander on account of Callisthenes’ death, and brought by Cassander, Antipater’s son.¹ Others have even said that it was conveyed in a mule’s hoof, and given to Alexander by Iollas, Cassander’s younger brother, as he was the royal cup-bearer and had been aggrieved by Alexander not long before his death.

Callimachus

Hymn to Zeus

33–36

Neda, eldest of the nymphs who then were about her bed, earliest birth after Styx and Philyra.

Epimenides

fr. 7 Fowler [=FGrHist 457 F 5, Vorsokr. 3 B 6]

Fowler 2001

p. 96

Fowler 2013

p. 13

§1.3.2 CHILDREN OF OKEANOS ...

... Styx (Epimen. fr. 7);

Euripides

Alcestis

435–444

O daughter of Pelias, farewell, and may you have joy even as you dwell in the sunless house of Hades! Let Hades, black-haired god, and the old man who sits at oar and tiller, ferryman of souls, be in no doubt that it is by far the best of women that he has ferried in his skiff across the lake of Acheron.

Herodotus

6.74.1

Later Cleomenes' treacherous plot against Demaratus became known; he was seized with fear of the Spartans and secretly fled to Thessaly. From there he came to Arcadia and stirred up disorder, uniting the Arcadians against Sparta; among his methods of binding them by oath to follow him wherever he led was his zeal to bring the chief men of Arcadia to the city of Nonacris and make them swear by the water of the Styx.¹

1 The “water of Styx” is a mountain torrent flowing through a desolate ravine on the N. face of Chelmos.

6.74.2

Near this city is said to be the Arcadian water of the Styx, and this is its nature: it is a stream of small appearance, dropping from a cliff into a pool; a wall of stones runs round the pool. Nonacris, where this spring rises, is a city of Arcadia near Pheneus.

Hesiod

Theogony

361–362

and Styx who is the chiefest of them all. These are the eldest daughters that sprang from Ocean and Tethys;

383–403

And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and bore Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth [385] Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus the loud-thunderer. For so did Styx the deathless daughter of Ocean plan [390] on that day when the Olympian Lightning god called all the deathless gods to great Olympus, and said that whosoever of the gods would fight with him against the Titans, he would not cast him out from his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst the deathless gods. [395] And he declared that he who was without office or right under Cronos, should be raised to both office and rights as is just. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her children through the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honored her, and gave her very great gifts, [400] for he appointed her to be the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always. And as he promised, so he performed fully unto them all. But he himself mightily reigns and rules.

767–806

There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound guards the house in front, [770] pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those who go in he fawns with his tail and both his ears, but suffers them not to go out back again, but keeps watch and devours whomever he catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone. [775] And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of backflowing Ocean. She lives apart from the gods in her glorious house vaulted over with great rocks and propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars. [780] Rarely does the daughter of Thaumas, swift-footed Iris, come to her with a message over the sea's wide back. But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when any one of them who live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus sends Iris to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods [785] from far away, the famous cold water which trickles down from a high and beetling rock. Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch of Oceanus flows through the dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. [790] With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the earth and the sea's wide back, and then falls into the main; but the tenth flows out from a rock, a sore trouble to the gods. For whoever of the deathless gods that hold the peaks of snowy Olympus pours a libation of her water and is forsworn, [795] must lie breathless until a full year is completed, and never come near to taste ambrosia and nectar, but lie spiritless and voiceless on a strewn bed: and a heavy trance overshadows him. But when he has spent a long year in his sickness, [800] another penance more hard follows after the first. For nine years he is cut off from the eternal gods and never joins their councils or their feasts, nine full years. But in the tenth year he comes again to join the assemblies of the deathless gods who live in the house of Olympus. [805] Such an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal and primeval water of Styx to be: and it spouts through a rugged place.

912–913

Also [Zeus] came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and she bore white-armed Persephone.

Homer

Iliad

1.524–527

Come, I [Zeus] will bow my head to you, that thou may be certain, for this from me is the surest token among the immortals; [525] no word of mine may be recalled, nor is false, nor unfulfilled, to which I bow my head.”

2.751–755

and dwelt in the ploughland about lovely Titaressus, that poureth his fair-flowing streams into Peneius; yet doth he not mingle with the silver eddies of Peneius, but floweth on over his waters like unto olive oil; [755] for that he is a branch of the water of Styx, the dread river of oath.

8.366–369

[Athena:] Had I but known all this in wisdom of my heart when Eurystheus sent him forth to the house of Hades the Warder, to bring from out of Erebus the hound of loathed Hades, then had he not escaped the sheer-falling waters of Styx.

14.271–278

[Hypnos to Hera]: “Come now, swear to me by the inviolable water of Styx, and with one hand lay thou hold of the bounteous earth, and with the other of the shimmering sea, that one and all they may be witnesses betwixt us twain, even the gods that are below with Cronos, [275] that verily thou wilt give me one of the youthful Graces, even Pasithea, that myself I long for all my days.” So spake he, and the goddess, white-armed Hera, failed not to hearken, but sware as he bade,

15.36–42

[Hera:] Hereto now be Earth my witness and the broad Heaven above, and the down-flowing water of Styx, which is the greatest and most dread oath for the blessed gods, ... not by my will doth Poseidon, the Shaker of Earth, work harm to the Trojans and Hector, and give succour to their foes.

23.71–74

[Patroclus to Achilles:] Bury me with all speed, that I pass within the gates of Hades. Afar do the spirits keep me aloof, the phantoms of men that have done with toils, neither suffer they me to join myself to them beyond the River, but vainly I wander through the wide-gated house of Hades.

Odyssey

5.184–187

[Calypso:] Now therefore let earth be witness to this, and the broad heaven above, [185] and the down-flowing water of the Styx, which is the greatest and most dread oath for the blessed gods, that I will not plot against thee any fresh mischief to thy hurt.

10.513–515

There into Acheron flow Periphlegethon and Cocytus, which is a branch of the water of the Styx; [515] and there is a rock, and the meeting place of the two roaring rivers.

Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter

1–5

Of Demeter the lovely-haired, the august goddess first I sing, of her and her slender-ankled daughter, whom Aïdoneus seized ... as she [Persephone] frolicked, ... with the deep-bosomed daughters of Ocean,

259

[Demeter to Metaneira:] For may the implacable Water of Shuddering¹¹ on which the gods swear their oaths be my witness,

11 “Shuddering” is the literal meaning of the Greek name Styx.

418–423

[Persephone:] We were all frolicking in the lovely meadow—Leucippe and Phaeno and Electra and Ianthe, and Melite and Iache and Rhodeia and Callirhoe, and Melobosis and Tyche and Ocyrhoe with eyes like buds, and Chryseis and Ianeira and Acaste and Admete, and Rhodope and Plouto and captivating Calypso, and Styx and Ourania and lovely Galaxaura,

Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo

83–86

Leto swore the gods’ powerful oath: “So may Earth be my witness, and the broad Heaven above, and the trickling Water of Shuddering—the most powerful and dreadful oath that the blessed gods can swear

Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes

518–520

[Apollo to Hermes:] If you could bring yourself to swear the gods’ great oath, either by nodding your head, or upon the dread Water of Shuddering, you would be acting entirely after my own heart.”

Hyginus

Fabulae

1.2–1.5

From Night and Erebus: Fate, Old Age, Death, Dissolution, Continence, Sleep, Dreams, Love — that is, Lysimeles, Epiphron, Porphyrion, Epaphus, Discord, Wretchedness, Wantonness, Nemesis, Euphrosyne, Friendship, Compassion, Styx;

1.1–17.1–2

From Pallas the giant and Styx, Scylla, Force, Envy, Power, Victory, Fountains, Lakes.

107

CONTEST OF ARMS: After Hector's burial, when Achilles was wandering along the ramparts of the Trojans and saying that he alone had reduced Troy, Apollo in anger, taking the form of Alexander Paris, struck him with an arrows on the heel which was said to be vulnerable, and killed him. When Achilles was killed and given burial, Telamonian Ajax demanded from the Danaan the arms of Achilles, on the grounds that he was cousin on his father's side. Through the anger of Minerva they were denied him by Agamemnon and Menelaus, and given to Ulysses. Ajax, harbouring rage, in madness slaughtered his flocks, and killed himself with that sword he had received from Hector as a gift when the two met in battle line.

179

SEMELE: Jove desired to lie with Semele, and when Juno found out, she changed her form to that of the nurse Beroe, came to Semele, and suggested that she ask Jove to come to her as he came to Juno, "that you may know", she said, "what pleasure it is to lie with a god." And so Semele asked Jove to come to her in this way. Her request was granted, and Jove, coming with lightning and thunder, burned Semele to death. From her womb Liber was born. Mercury snatched him from the fire and gave him to Nysus to be reared. In Greek he is called Dionysus.

Nonnus

Dionysiaca

8.178–406

Now Hera left the shieldbeswingled cave of the Dictaean rockd and the cavern where the goddess of childbirth was born, and came full of guile to Semele’s chamber, puffing with jealousy. ... So she spoke in her pride, and would have grasped the deadly lightning in her own hands—she touched the destroying thunderbolts with daring palm, careless of Fate. Then Semele’s wedding was her death, and in its celebration the Avenging Spirit made her bower serve for pyre and tomb. Zeus had no mercy; the breath of the bridal thunder with its fires of delivery burnt her all to ashes.

Ovid

Metamorphoses

1.733–736

Repentant Jove

embraced his consort, and entreated her

to end the punishment: “Fear not,” he said,

“For [Io] shall trouble thee no more.” He spoke,

and called on bitter Styx to hear his oath.

2.42–46

“O child most worthy of thy sire, the truth

was told thee by thy mother; wherefore doubts

to dissipate, consider thy desire,

and ask of me that I may freely give:

yea, let the Nether Lake, beyond our view,

(which is the oath of Gods inviolate)

be witness to my word.”

3.308–312

Whatever thy wish, it shall not be denied,

and that thy heart shall suffer no distrust,

I pledge me by that Deity, the Waves

of the deep Stygian Lake,—oath of the Gods.

Pausanias

8.17.6

As you go from Pheneus to the west, the left road leads to the city Cleitor, while on the right is the road to Nonacris and the water of the Styx. Of old Nonacris was a town of the Arcadians that was named after the wife of Lycaon. When I visited it, it was in ruins, and most of these were hidden. Not far from the ruins is a high cliff; I know of none other that rises to so great a height. A water trickles down the cliff, called by the Greeks the water of the Styx.

8.18.2

Epimenides of Crete, also, represented Styx as the daughter of Ocean, not, however, as the wife of Pallas, but as bearing Echidna to Peiras, whoever Peiras may be. But it is Homer who introduces most frequently the name of Styx into his poetry. In the oath of Hera he says [Hom. Il. 15.36-37]:

Witness now to this be Earth, and broad Heaven above,

And the water of Styx down-flowing.

These verses suggest that the poet had seen the water of the Styx trickling down. Again in the list of those who came with Guneus¹ he makes the river Titaresius receive its water from the Styx.

¹ Hom. Il. 2.751

8.18.4

The water trickling down the cliff by the side of Nonacris falls first to a high rock, through which it passes and then descends into the river Crathis. Its water brings death to all, man and beast alike. It is said too that it once brought death even upon goats, which drank of the water first; later on all the wonderful properties of the water were learnt.

8.18.5

For glass, crystal, murrhine vessels, other articles men make of stone, and pottery, are all broken by the water of the Styx, while things of horn or of bone, with iron, bronze, lead, tin, silver and electrum, are all corroded by this water. Gold too suffers just like all the other metals, and yet gold is immune to rust, as the Lesbian poetess bears witness and is shown by the metal itself.

8.18.6

So heaven has assigned to the most lowly things the mastery over things far more esteemed than they. For pearls are dissolved by vinegar, while diamonds, the hardest of stones, are melted by the blood of the he-goat. The only thing that can resist the water of the Styx is a horse's hoof. When poured into it the water is retained, and does not break up the hoof. Whether Alexander, the son of Philip, met his end by this poison I do not know for certain, but I do know that there is a story to this effect.

8.19.3

If a rabid dog turn a man mad, or wound or otherwise endanger him, to drink this water is a cure. For this reason they call the spring Alyssus (Curer of madness). So it would appear that the Arcadians have in the water near Pheneus, called the Styx, a thing made to be a mischief to man, while the spring among the Cynaetheans is a boon to make up for the bane in the other place.

8.37.9

This Mistress the Arcadians worship more than any other god, declaring that she is a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Mistress is her surname among the many, just as they surname Demeter's daughter by Zeus the Maid. But whereas the real name of the Maid is Persephone ...

10.28.1

The other part of the picture, the one on the left, shows Odysseus, who has descended into what is called Hades to inquire of the soul of Teiresias about his safe return home. The objects depicted are as follow. There is water like a river, clearly intended for Acheron, with reeds growing in it; the forms of the fishes appear so dim that you will take them to be shadows rather than fish. On the river is a boat, with the ferryman at the oars.

Plato

Phaedo

113d

[113d] “Such is the nature of these things. Now when the dead have come to the place where each is led by his genius, first they are judged and sentenced, as they have lived well and piously, or not. And those who are found to have lived neither well nor ill, go to the Acheron and, embarking upon vessels provided for them, arrive in them at the lake; there they dwell and are purified, and if they have done any wrong they are absolved by paying the penalty for their wrong doings,

Pliny (1st c.)

Natural History

2.231

To drink of the Styx near Nonacris in Arcady causes death on the spot, although the river is not peculiar in smell or colour;

30.149

The hoofs of she-mules are the only material discovered that is not rotted by the poisonous water of Styx,^a a notable fact discovered by Aristotle, to his great infamy, when Antipater sent a draught of it to Alexander the Great. Now I will pass to things found in water.^b

a A fountain in Arcadia.

b Practically the whole of this chapter is in indirect speech, to denote the scepticism of Pliny.

31.26–27

In Arcadia near the Pheneus there flows from the rocks a stream called Styx, which I have said^b proves instantly fatal to life, but Theophrastus tells us that in it are small fish equally deadly;

b Book II. § 231

Plutarch (1st c.)

Alexander

77.2

But those who affirm that Aristotle counselled Antipater to do the deed,¹ and that it was entirely through his agency that the poison was provided, mention one Hagnothemis as their authority, who professed to have heard the story from Antigonus the king; and the poison was water, icy cold, from a certain cliff in Nonacris; this they gathered up like a delicate dew and stored it in an ass's hoof; for no other vessel would hold the water, but would all be eaten through by it, owing to its coldness and pungency.

1 Arrian, Anab. vii. 28.

Sappho

fr. 95 Campbell [= fr. 95 Lobel-Page = fr. 97 Diehl]

. . . Gongyla . . . surely some sign . . . especially . . . (Hermes?) entered . . . I said, ‘Lord, . . . for by the blessed (goddess) . . . I get no pleasure from being above the earth, and a longing grips me to die and see the dewy, lotus-covered banks of Acheron . . .’

Seneca (1st c.)

Natural Questions

3.25

Some waters are deadly and yet are not distinctive in odour or taste. Near Nonacris in Arcadia the Styx,² as it is called by the inhabitants, fools strangers because it is not suspected by its appearance or odour.

2 Pliny (2.231; 31.27) reports that one drink of this River Styx causes death on the spot and that according to Theophrastus it has equally deadly fish.

• Seneca. Natural Questions, Volume I: Books 1-3. Translated by Thomas H. Corcoran. Loeb Classical Library 450. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.

Servius

Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil

6.439

NOVIES STYX INTERFUSA quia qui altius de mundi ratione quaesiverunt, dicunt intra novem hos mundi circulos inclusas esse virtutes, in quibus et iracundiae sunt et cupiditates, de quibus tristitia nascitur, id est Styx. unde dicit novem esse circulos Stygis, quae inferos cingit, id est terram, ut diximus supra: nam dicunt alias esse purgatiores extra hos circulos potestates.

[Google Translate:] THE NINE STYX INTERFURED Because those who have inquired more deeply into the nature of the world, say that within these nine circles of the world are included the virtues, in which are both anger and lust, from which sorrow is born, that is, the Styx. whence he says that there are nine circles of the Styx, which surrounds the underworld, that is, the earth, as we said above: for they say that there are other more purifying powers outside these circles.

Sophocles

Antigone

806–816

ANTIGONE

Behold me, citizens of my native land, as I make my last journey, and look on the light of the sun for the last time, and never more; Hades who lulls all to sleep is taking me, still living, to the shore of Acheron, without the bridal that was my due, nor has any song been sung for me at my marriage, but I shall be the bride of Acheron.

Statius

Achilleid

1.133–134

[Thetis:] I, seem to take my son down to the void of Tartarus, and dip him a second time in the springs of Styx.

1. 269–270

[Thetis to Achilles:] if at thy birth I fortified thee with the stern waters of Styx^d—ay, would I had wholly!

1. 480–481

Whom else did a Nereid take by stealth through Stygian waqters and make his fair limbs impenetrable to steel?

Strabo

7 fr. 15

The Peneius River rises in the Pindus Mountain and flows through Tempo and through the middle of Thessaly and of the countries of the Lapithae and the Perrhaebians, and also receives the waters of the Europus River, which Homer called Titaresius; it marks the boundary between Macedonia1 on the north and Thessaly on the south. But the source-waters of the Europus rise in the Titarius Mountain, which is continuous with Olympus. And Olyunpus belongs to Macedonia, whereas Ossa and Pelion belong to Thessaly.

8.8.4

And near Pheneus is also the water of the Styx, as it is called—a small stream of deadly water which is held to be sacred. So much may be said concerning Arcadia.

Virgil

Aeneid

6.317–326

Then aroused and amazed by the disorder, Aeneas cries: “Tell me, maiden, what means the crowding to the river? What seek the spirits? By what rule do these leave the banks, and those sweep the lurid stream with oars?” To him thus briefly spoke the aged priestess: “Anchises’ son, true offspring of gods, you are looking at the deep pools of Cocytus and the Stygian marsh, by whose power the gods fear to swear falsely. All this crowd that you see is helpless and graveless; yonder ferryman is Charon;

6.384–390

So they pursue the journey begun, and draw near to the river. But when, even from the Stygian wave, the boatman saw them passing through the silent wood and turning their feet towards the bank, he first, unhailed, accosts and rebukes them: “Whoever you are who come to our river in arms, tell me, even from there, why you come, and check your step. This is the land of Shadows, of Sleep and drowsy

6.434–439

The region thereafter [in the underworld] is held by those sad souls who in innocence wrought their own death and, loathing the light, flung away their lives. How gladly now, in the air above, would they bear both want and harsh distress! Fate withstands; the unlovely mere with its dreary water enchains them and Styx imprisons with his ninefold circles.

Modern

Antoni

s.v. Styx

(Στύξ/Stýx). From Homer (Hom. Il. 2,755; 14,271; 15,36-38 et passim), who exclusively uses the phrase Στυγὸς ὕδωρ/Stygòs hýdōr ('Water of Horror'), onwards a river (in Pl. Phd. 113c: lake) in the Underworld and besides Gaia and Uranus the most important of the gods' witnesses to oaths. It appears for the first time in Hes. Theog. 361; 383-403; 775-806 as a mythical figure. The S. is the earliest of the Oceanids and the mother with Pallas of Zelus, Nike, Cratus and Bia and, according to Epimenides (FGrH 457 F 5), with Peiras [1] of Echidna. As a reward for her support in a battle with the Titans she is elevated by Zeus to the most powerful divine oath (cf. Apoll. Rhod. 2,291 f.; Apollod. 1,8 f. and 1,13, where S. is the mother with Zeus of Persephone; Verg. Aen. 6,323 f.; 6,439; 12,816 f.; Ov. Met. 3,290 f.). This mythological idea may be traceable [2.460-462] to an approximately 200-m-high waterfall (modern Mavronéri, 'black water'; on the black coloration cf. Ptol. Chennos in Phot. Bibl. cod. 190, 148a Bekker, l. 14-19) on the northern slopes of Chelmus/Helmus (Aroania ore) mountains near Nonacris [1] in Arcadia (Hdt. 6,74; Str. 5,4,5; 8,8,4; Paus. 8,17,6-18,6; 8,19,3). Because of their icy coldness its waters were considered deadly to humans and animals and, according to legend, could be transported only in vessels made from the hooves or horns of animals. It was with this poison that Alexander [4] the Great, too, is supposed to have been killed (Theophr. fr. 160 Wimmer; Callim. fr. 413; Plut. Mor. 954c-d; Plut. Alexandros 77,707a-b; Ael. NA 10,40; Vitr. De arch. 8,3,16; Plin. HN 2,231; 30,149; 31,26 f.).

Antoni, Silke (Kiel)

Frazer

On Pausanias 8.17.6

Fowler 2013

p. 9

In Epimen. fr. 7 Pausanias reports that for Styx's consort Epimenides offered not Pallas as in Hesiod (Th. 376, 383) but Peiras, 'whoever he is'. ... Epimenides says that his daughter was Echidna, who in later Orphic tradition (fr. 58 Kern, 81 Bernebé).

Gantz

p. 22

The variant of her parentage comes form the Epimenides Theogony, where [Echidna] is the offspring of Styx and one Peiras (3B6).

p. 25

The second son, Pallas, marries his cousin Styx (daughter of Okeanos and [cont.]

p. 26

Tethys); their Children are Zelos (Glory), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Power), and Bia (Force) (Th 383–85). These last two appear briefly in the Prometheus Desmotes, but basically all four are personifications.

p. 29

Of all these children of Okeanos, Styx is given special prominence through her role in Hesiod's Titanomachy: when Zeus summons the gods to Olypos, and promises to maintain the honors of those who take his side, the Okeanid (as we saw on the advice of her father) is the first to join him, and brings with her her children by Pallas (Th 389–401). In return for these tokens of victory, Zeus makes her the oath by which the gods swear. Such oaths are not overy common in Homer (often a nod sufficies, and indeed Zeusonce calls this the greatest witness: Il 1.525–26). But Hera swears twice by the Styx, (among other things) to Hypnos and Zeus in the Iliad (14.271; 15.37–38), and Kalypso gives the same pledge to Odysseus in the Odyssey (5.185–86). From the Homeric Hymns there is also Leto to Delos (HAp 85–86) and Demeter to Metaneira (HDem 259), while Apollo suggests such an oath to Hermes (although in fact he nods: (HHerm 518–19). The rather strange description of the oath laterin the Theogony states that whenever someone of the immortals lies and there is a dispute on Olympos, Iris is sent to fetch water from the Syx in a golden pitcher, and the gods swear pouring it out (Th 780–806), Elsewhere, as we have seen,it is enough to name the river in making the oath. In this passage, Hesiod goes on to define the penalty for breaking such an oath., though one might have thought it unbreakable: the god who forswears lies for a year breathless and voiceless in an artificial sleep, and when this penalty has ended he suffers the worser torment of expulsion from the gods' company and table for nine years. There is no other record anywhere in Greek literature of this (save Empedokles 31B115 and Orphic Theogonies [fr. 295 Kern]), and certainly nothing to indicate that the penaly was ever enforced. It should be noted that oaths are generally given by gods to other gods, not to mortals; Demeter's voluntary oath to Metaneira and that of Kalypso to Odysseus are exceptions.

The Styx as a river is also described in this section of the Theogony: one-tenth of Okeanos' waters are allotted to her, and she runs far under the earth, comming up to pour forth from a rock (Th 775–79,786-92). As an actual stream of the Underworld she is mentioned by Athena at Iliad 8.369, and Kirke makes the Kokytos an offshoot of her at Odyssey 10.514. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, she is also named by Persephone as one of her companions (together with numerous other Okeanids; the poet gives 21 of whom six [5??] are not in the Theogony: HDem 418-23) at the time of her abduction. Moving down to the fifth century, the Epimenides Theogony says that [cont.]

p. 30

she does not live with Pallas (the father of her children), and that she bore Echidna to one Perias (3B6). Pindar mentions her oath in Paian 6 (155), but the context is too fragmentary to say more.

p. 45

as seen above Styx is the first to accept this offer; accompanied by her children Zelos, Nike, Kratos, and Bia.

p. 64

By contrast ... Curiously enough, when Apollodorus first mentions Persephone he calls her a daughter of Zeus and Styx (ApB 1.3.1), reverting back to the usual parentage only when he comes to the story of the abduction. ...

The primary tale involving Persephone and Demeter is,of course, the ...

p. 124

In the Iliad ... Book 8 (Athena's description of her aid to Heracles) establishes the existence of a river Styx that must be crossed when the hero descends into Hades to obtain Kerberos (Il 8.369). And in Iliad 23, Patroklos shade visits Achilles and asks to be buried as quickly as possible, "so that I might pass through the gates of Hades. For the psychai, the likenesses of the dead, keep me far away, and do not permit me to mingle with them on the other side of the river. But always in the same way I roam about outside of Hades of the wide gates" (Il 23.71-74). Thus we see for the first and only time in Homer the idea of a river bounding Hades which cannot be crossed unless one has received burial.

Post-Homeric sources ... Hesiod ... does not ever say that she [Styx] forms a boundary in the Underworld; the first hint of this idea after the Iliad comes from Alkaios, who mentions Acheron as the river back across which the dead cannot pass (38A LP; cf Sappho 95 LP). Acheron as a river (or lake) leading to or somehow typical of the Underworld also appears in Aischylos (Hepta 854-60); cf. ... and in Sophokles' [cont.]

p. 125

Antigone (816)

Grimal

s.v. Styx

(Στύξ) A river of the Underworld. In Hesiod's Theogony, Styx was the oldest of the children of Oceanus and Tethys. But the genealogy which Hyginus placed at the begining of his fables mentioned her as one of the children of Night and Darkness (Erebus).

Styx was the name of a spring in Arcadia, not far from the village of Nonacris near the city of Pheneus. This spring emerged from a rock above ground, then disappeared underground again. Its water was said to have harmful properties: it was poisonous for men and for cattle and could break iron and metal, as well as any pottery which was immersed in it, though a horses horse's hoof was unharmed by it. Pausanias, who has preserved this list of the properties of the water, referred to a legend according to which Alexander was supposedly poisoned by water from this spring.

Hard

p. 41

If Hesiod places Styx, goddess of the infernal river of that name, at the end of the list, he indicates that he is doing so because he regards her as the most important of the Okeanids;

p. 49

PALLAS (genitive Pallantis, to be distinguished Pallas, gen. Pallados,the well-known title of Athena) married STYX, the goddess of the infernal river of that name (see p. 109), who is classed by Hesiod as the eldest of the Okeanid nymphs. As her children by Pallas, she gave birth to four personifications, Zelos (Emulation or Glory), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Strength or Power) and Bia (Might or Force).¹⁶⁵ When the great war between the Titans and the younger gods was about to break out and Zeus was assembling his allies, Styx, at the urging of her father Okeanos, brought him her children, who all represented forces that would be invaluable in the forthcoming conflict. Zeus was duly grateful and paid high honour to Styx and her children, declaring that the solemn oaths of the gods would be sworn by her waters, and that her children would live with him forever (in so far as the qualities that they represent would become attributes of his own.)¹⁶⁶ When serious disputes arose between the gods thereafter, Zeus would send Iris to the Underworld to fetch some water from Styx in a golden jug; and if any god swore falsely by it, he would be deprived of nectar and ambrosia for a year (and so rendered insensible), and would be banished from the company of the gods for nine years.¹⁶⁷

p. 109

The abode of the dead ... It is separated from the world of the living by a boundary-river, the Styx in the Iliad, but usually the Acheron in later sources.^{59 [Hom. Il. 23.71-4 (unamed boundry-river), 8.369 (Styx), cf. Verg. Aen. 6.384ff; Acheron first as boundary-rive in Alcaeus 38, cf. Sappho 95 (implied), Aesch. Seven 854–60, Paus. 10.28.1 etc.]} Four infernal rivers are mentioned in the Odyssey, namely the Styx, Acheron', Kokytos (here described as a branch of the Styx) and Pyriphlegethon (also known as Phegethon);⁶⁰

p. 110

The Styx, Kokytos and Acheron had counterparts in the upper world, the Styx in Arcadia, ... There was a Styx in northern Arcadia that plunged several hundred feet down a sheer cliff-face near Nonakris (at the falls now known as Mavronero), much as the infernal river is said to flow down from a tall precipice in Hesiod's account. In the earliest surviving reference to the Arcadian Styx, Herodotus mentions that Arcadians swore oaths by it and believed that the waters from the infernal river issues into it. There is no way of telling whether the traditional conception of the infernal river was influenced by knowledge of the Arcadian Styx and its falls, or whether, conversely, the Arcadian Styx was first given that name because its chilly falls resembled this of the Styx in Hesiod's description.

p. 113

Charon, the ferryman of the dead, ... ferried them across the boundry-river (usually Acheron,occasionally Styx) into the world of the dead.

Mayor

"Alexander the Great: A Questionable Death"

p. 54

p. 57

p. 58

Jost (OCD)

Jost, s.v. Styx

Styx, eldest of the daughters of Ocean (see oceanus) and Tethys, located at the bottom of Tartarus (Hes.Theog.775–806). Having helped Zeus against the Titans (see titan), she became the ‘great oath of the gods’ (ibid. 400). In later writers, the Styx is the river of the Underworld (see hades). Herodotus (1) places the Styx in Arcadia (6. 74), as do Strabo (8. 8. 4), Pliny (1) (HN 2. 231), and Pausanias (3) (8. 17. 6: near Nonacris, not far from Pheneos). The Arcadians took oaths by the waters of the Styx, which was believed to have harmful properties. Since the 19th cent., the Styx has been identified with the falls of Mavronero, which flow down the length of a rocky slope near the village of Solos, at the foot of the highest peak of Mount Chelmos. The myth's origins must lie in geography.

Parada

s.v. Styx

Στύξ.

Water-stream in the underworld. Zeus caused oaths to be sworn by the water of Styx because she had fought on his side against the TITANS.

•a)Oceanus ∞ Tethys.

•b)Erebus ∞ Nyx.

••1)Pallas 1.

••2)Zeus

••3)Piras 2.

•••1)Nike, Cratos, Zelos, Bia.

•••2)Persephone.

•••3)Echidna.

1)OCEANIDS. 2)NYX'S OFFSPRING.

D.-G1.-•a)Apd. 1.2.2.-5., Hes.The.383ff. •b)Hyg.Pre. ••1)-•••1) Hes.The.383ff., Apd. 1.2.2.-5. ••2-•••2)Apd.1.3.1. ••3)-•••3)Pau.8.18.2

Reclus

p. 230

Another stream ... flows north toward the gulf of Corinth under the name of Mavro Nero, Black Water, or Drako Nero, Dragon Water; it rises in the snows, then it falls suddenly 97 feet in two misty scarfs; out of this sometimes sombre and sometimes gracious torrent, the ancients made the muddy Styx of the lower world, whose murky floods were forever stirred by the fatal ferryman, Charon.

Smith

s.v. Styx

(Στύξ), connected with the verb στυγέω, to hate or abhor, is the name of the principal river in the nether world, around which it flows seven times. (Hom. Il. 2.755, 8.369. 14.271; Verg. G. 4.480, Aen. 6.439.) Styx is described as a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys (Hes. Theog. 361 ; Apollod. 1.2.2; Callim. Hymn. in Jov. 36), and as a nymph she dwelt at the entrance of Hades, in a lofty grotto which was supported by silver columns. (Hes. Theog. 778.) As a river Styx is described as a branch of Oceanus, flowing from its tenth source (789), and the river Cocytus again is a branch of the Styx. (Hom. Od. 10.511.) By Pallas Styx became the mother of Zelus (zeal), Nice (victory), Bia (strength), and Cratos (power). She was the first of all the immortals that took her children to Zeus, to assist him against the Titans; and, in return for this, her children were allowed for ever to live with Zeus, and Styx herself became the divinity by whom the most solemn oaths were sworn. (Hes. Theog. 383 ; Hom. Od. 5.185, 15.37; Apollod. 1.2.5; Apollon. 2.191; Verg. A. 6.324, 12.816; Ov. Met. 3.290; Sil. Ital. 13.568.) When one of the gods was to take an oath by Styx, Iris fetched a cup full of water from the Styx, and the god, while taking the oath, poured out the water. (Hes. Theog 775.) Zeus became by her the father of Persephone (Apollod. 1.3.1), and Peiras the father of Echidna. (Paus. 8.18.1.)

Tripp

s.v. Styx

The chief river of Hades, and its goddess. ...

Styx lived in a silver-pillared cave in Hades. The river, a branch of Oceanus, flowed out of or fell from a rock. another river of Hades the Cocytus, was a branch of the Styx, as was the river Titaressus, a tributary of the Thessalian river Peneius.

West

p. 53 n. 11

“Shuddering” is the literal meaning of the Greek name Styx.