Virgil mentions Acheron with the other infernal rivers in his description of the underworld in Book VI of the Aeneid. The word is also occasionally used as a synecdoche for Hades itself. He claimed that Acheron flowed in the opposite direction from Oceanus beneath the earth under desert places. Those who were neutral in life sit on the banks Plato in his Phaedo identified Acheron as the second greatest river in the world, excelled only by Oceanus.įollowing Greek mythology, Charon ferries souls across the Acheron to Hell. Greeks who settled in Italy identified the Acherusian lake into which Acheron flowed with Lake Avernus. Another branch of Acheron was believed to surface at the Acherusian cape (now Karadeniz Ereğli in Turkey) and was seen by the Argonauts according to Apollonius of Rhodes. The river called Acheron with the nearby ruins of the Necromanteion is found near Parga on the mainland opposite Corfu. By this myth, Acheron is also the father of Ascalaphus by either Orphne or Gorgyra. Īccording to later traditions, Acheron had been a son of Helios and either Gaia or Demeter, who had been turned into the Underworld river bearing his name after he refreshed the Titans with drink during their contest with Zeus. The Suda describes the river as "a place of healing, not a place of punishment, cleansing and purging the sins of humans". The original for the work is held by the National Gallery of Victoria. William Blake's depiction of "The Vestibule of Hell and the Souls Mustering to Cross the Acheron" in his Illustrations to Dante's "Divine Comedy" object 5 c.
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