Acheron (mythology)

Acheron ( Greek  Ἀχέρων ) is the personification of the river Acheron in Greek mythology .

The name was probably derived from ἄχος ( pain ). Correspondingly, Acheron is regarded as the river of suffering, pain and also as the river of the dead, over which the souls of the dead are crossed or which they have to swim through. Occasionally the name is used as a synonym for the underworld , especially by the Alexandrian and Roman poets.

The other rivers of the underworld, Styx , Kokytos , Phlegethon and Lethe flow into the Acheron . Acheron was transferred to the underworld because he gave the titans to drink in the fight against Zeus .

According to Apollodorus he fathered Askalaphos with Gorgyra , but according to Ovid with Orphne, who is therefore often equated with Gorgyra.

swell

• Homer , Odyssey X, 513
• Ovid , Metamorphoses V, 539ff

literature

• Georg Wentzel : Acheron 6 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 218 f.
• Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Acheron . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1.1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 9-11 ( digitized version ).