Αχερων
The first mention of the river Acheron occurs in the Odyssey, where it is described in the subterranean world of Hell, together with Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus. The Acheron is the river which souls have to cross to reach the empire of the Dead. A ferryman, Charon, has the duty of carrying them from one side to the other. The river is almost stagnant and its banks are thick with reeds and heavy with mud. According to tradition Acheron was a son of Earth (Gaia), condemned to stay underground as punishment for having allowed the Giants, who were thirsty after their struggle with the Olympians, to drink his waters. By Orphnea, the Nymph of Darkness or, in another version, by Gorgyra, Acheron had begotten Ascalaphus, the youth who was changed by Demeter into an owl.
There was a river Acheron in Epirus, on the western side of the Greek mainland, which ran through wild countryside and after flowing for some distance, disappeared into a deep cleft. When it surfaced again, near its mouth, it formed an unhealthy marsh set in a barren landscape. An etymological mistake (according to which its name was thought to be derived from the Greek word for sorrow) as well as the characteristics of the river in Epirus undoubtedly contributed to the birth of the idea that it was associated with Hell, and its earthly features were transferred to the subterranean world.
In the mystical beliefs current under the Roman Empire the Acheron was regarded as lying somewhere near the South Pole, among the constellations of the Antipodes.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Hom. Od. 10, 513
- Euripides, Alc. 439ff.
- Virgil, Aen. 6, 295
- Ovid, Met. 5, 534ff.
- Apollod. Bibl. 1, 5, 3
- Hdt. 5, 92, 7
- Paus. 1, 17, 5; 5, 14, 2ff.; 10, 28, 1f