Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 6 -- And Back to the Cross
caves and chasms of ancient Greece. The Pyriphlegethon, however, being of fire and not
suitable for a Christian Educator's Eden, was excluded.)
That there is a measurable difference between body and the soul is made clear when the Stygian
boatman denies Dante passage because of the weight of his body.
To catch the flavor of Dante's poetry, below are excerpts from three English translations.
Acheron Upon the dismal shore
of Acheron
Styx A marsh it makes, which
has the name of Styx
Pyriphlegethon The river of blood, within
which boiling is whoe'er
by violence doth injure
others
Cocytus Thereby Cocytus wholly
was congealed
Longfellow (1867) Cary (1805) Mandelbaum (1982)
Beside the woeful tide
of Acheron
The river of blood
approaches, in the
which all those are
steep'd
Cocytus to its depth
was frozen.
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The melancholy shore of
Acheron
Forming a swamp that
bears the name of Styx
And all Cocytus froze
before those winds
Below is half of Sandro Botticelli's circa-1480 Inferno illustration with sins ranked by depth.
Gate of
Hell
Flatterers
Those who instigation of lawsuits,
typically groundless ones
Thieves
Sowers of discord
Lake Cocytus:
River Acheron
Virtuous unbaptized
Lustful
Gluttonous
Hoarders and squanderers
River Styx
Walls of the City of Dis
River Phlegethon
Wood of Suicides
The Abominable Sand
Panderers and seducers
Those who pay for
sacraments and holy office
Hypocrites
Counselors of fraud
Falsifiers
Traitors to their kindred,
country, guests and lords
The page following shows slices from Botticelli's work with enlarged details of the boatman, the
topic of Chapter 33, Twenty-Five Centuries of Subterranean Portraits.
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