Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 1 -- Greek Mythology
Recalling the disagreement about the Acheron, we'll view the 19th-century map below as
someone's best guess. Pertinent names are overtyped for easier identification.
We will remap today's superterranean Arcadian watershed in Chapter 28.
To enter Tartarus, souls must cross a river, but which one? Early Greeks thought it to be the
Acheron. The Romans said it to be the River Styx or Lake Acherusia.
The Acheron
Pindar (ca. 522–443 BC)
Aeschylus (c. 525-455 BC)
Euripides (ca. 480–406 BC)
Plato (428-348 BC)
Callimachus (ca. 310-240
BC)
Pausanias (110-180)
Dante (1265-1321)
Lake Acherusia
Both the Acheron
and the Styx
Virgil (70-19 BC)
We will meet many of the above in later chapters.
Cocytus
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Tartarus
The Styx
Propertius (ca. 45-15
BC)
Ovid (43 BC-17 AD)
Statius (ca. 45-96 AD)
To muddle the lore a bit more, some acounts thought the psychopomp -- a general term for a
guide of the dead -- to be the god Phlegyas, but in the overwhelming majority, it's Charon.
In deference to the lore that's todays standard, that of Virgil, we will call it the Styx.
To this purpose, the aged and avaricious boatman, Charon, ferries those
upon whose lips has been placed the two-obol fare at cremation. As the
coin was worth less than a modern American dollar, the poor were not
excluded; at issue was preparation of the corps.
As fares for underground river passage have carried over into modern
life, we'll yse the box format to note prices as we come upon them
throughout the remainder of our journey.
Lethe
Pyriphlegethon
Boatman's Fee
2 obols
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