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Key Details
Type
Body Of WaterMythology
Greek Pantheon
Realm
Mythological / Non-physical
About This Location
Oath-water
The Styx is a river the gods swear by. Hesiod says Zeus made that oath after Styx and her children sided with him in the Titan war; a god who breaks it lies breathless for a year. Homer's gods invoke it as the strongest, most dreaded oath. Charon's ferry is a later convenience (already familiar to fifth-century vase-painters and to Virgil). The Arcadian Styx of Nonacris is a real waterfall Pausanias describes as poisonous. Myth and a bitter spring share a name.
Primary Sources
“The great oath of the gods, the water of Styx, that oldest and most dread of rivers.”
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