Greek PantheonBody Of Water
River Styx
The principal river of the underworld, upon which even the gods swore binding oaths. Charon ferried the dead across its dark waters.
About River Styx
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.
On the map
River Styx among other places of the Greek Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Homer, Iliad 15
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
Keep exploring
One myth a week, with its sources in a short email. The sign-up form is just below.