Mythographia: The Five Rivers of the Underworld
Welcome weary soul. The Ferryman is waiting for you.
What’s that? No. This isn’t the River Styx – famed river of “Hatred” – that wraps seven times around the underworld. This is Acheron - river of “Pain and Sorrow” – or so said Homer and many myths of the ancient Greeks.
Here on the banks of the Acheron you must pray your loved ones gave you a proper burial and placed coins upon your eyes, so that you can earn the right to passage. Should you have neither, Charon will refuse to take you and it is upon the banks of the Cocytus – the river of “Lamentation” – that you will spend eternity wailing and gnashing your teeth.
Should you be lucky enough to cross, the Phlegethon – the “River of Fire” – will take you straight to the heart of Tartarus to be judged. Or perhaps you will drink from the murmuring waters of Lethe – the river of “Forgetfulness”, which flows through the cave of Hypnos, the god of Sleep – and wipe every last memory of your life from your mind. That’s unless you are lucky enough to be a hero or a child of an immortal, then the Elysium Fields await.
WATERWAYS OF MYTHOLOGY
Those were the imaginings of the ancient Greeks when contemplating the afterlife, and perhaps it is no wonder that waterways form such a huge part of the landscape, given their importance in everyday life.
From transportation and trade to food and fertility, waterways were a symbol of power, purification, transition and the unconscious. In ancient Greek mythology they were often personified by gods and goddesses, most famous of all Poseidon, god of the sea. There were many others too, from Achelous, the river god, to the nereids. Such was the importance of water and waterways to almost every facet of practical and spiritual life in ancient Greece, that the Philosopher Plato said that the Greeks were “like frogs sitting around a pond”.
THE FEAR OF DEATH
The five rivers of the underworld however – the Styx, Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon and Lethe – might best be understood through the human fears they represent. Styx is hatred of the way death separates us from the living. Lethe is the fear of forgetting and being forgotten. Acheron is the fear of pain and the grief of loss. The rivers of Hades stand in for the anxiety with which humans have always beheld death.
It’s no wonder that these rivers and the myths associated with them have inspired writers for generations: from Plato to Dante’s Inferno. The mythology and symbolism of water gives us a way to both understand and experience the mysteries on the other side of the veil.
CREATIVE PROMPT
Imagine that your afterlife is a reflection of your inner world. You get to paint the landscape that will greet you. What waits for you there? What rivers run through your underworld?