The River Styx is a major river in the Greek underworld (also called Hades). The river forms a boundary between the underworld and the world of the living. The word means hatred in Greek and is named after the goddess Styx. She was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.
The Amazon River is the longest river on Earth at over 4,300 miles long and was the birthplace of many ancient cultures. In the land of the dead, the river of hatred, or River Styx, dominates the underworld. Its dark depths can turn you into an unbeatable god, but a more likely fate is death.
History
The River Styx is not the only river in Hades. The other major rivers are the Acheron (river of pain), the Lethe ( river of forgetfulness), the Phlegethon (river of fire), and the Cocytus (river of tears). Charon, the ferryman, transports the souls of the dead across the river to the underworld, but he needs to be paid for his services. He traditionally placed his coin in the mouth of the dead. Without payment, the dead would not enter the underworld and would be left adrift on the shore for 100 years.
Location
Herodotus, a Greek historian from the 5th century BC, believed that the source of the Styx was near Pheane, a village in ancient Greece. The village is located in the foothills of Mount Cyllene, where Hermes is said to have been born. According to Dante, the river could be found in the fifth circle of hell, where vengeful sinners drowned in its murky waters.
Powers of the River Styx
The gods used the River Styx to swear oaths. Zeus made an oath to Semele, and because he had to keep it, the unfortunate result was his death. Similarly, Helios was responsible for the death of his own son when he swore on the river. If a god did not keep his oath, he would be forced to drink from the filthy river and thus lose his voice for nine years. The myth originated during the Titan War when the goddess Styx allied herself with Zeus. Once the war was over, Zeus declared that all oaths sworn would be sworn to him.
The river Styx was believed to have magical properties and could make a person invulnerable. Achilles is said to have been dipped in the river by his mother, which made him invulnerable, but his ankle remained a weak spot as he was held by it when he was dipped in the river. Achilles became a great warrior, but he was eventually killed when an arrow struck him in the ankle. The weak spot became known as the Achilles heel.
Ancient historians believed that the death of Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, may have been the result of poisoned water from the Styx. Modern scientific sources reveal that the water may have contained a deadly bacteria.
The Styx of the Real River
In Italy, a river that runs partially underground, called the Alpheus River, is seen as a possible gateway to the underworld where mortals can enter. Couples who consider the river to be the Styx River throw rings into its waters to appease the gods of marriage.
Another possible variant of the Styx, according to Hesiod’s Theogony, is the Mavronéri, a stream in Arcadia, Greece. The name of the stream means black water. The ancient Greeks believed that the river’s water was poisonous. They believed that if anyone tried to carry its water in anything other than a container made of horse hooves, the container would dissolve.
In the land of the living, there may not be a river of hatred, fire, or pain flowing through our backyard, but the various religions and cultures of the world, such as that of the ancient Greeks, have long engaged in a plethora of curious funeral rites for the dead.
These include practices such as burying the corpse with money, jewelry, food, or the Book of the Dead; not burying someone in the clothes of a living person to prevent the living person from rotting like the corpse; pulling the nails out of the dead; and even tying a camel to the grave of a recently deceased person.
