Acheron

Acheron (woeful) In Greek mythology, river believed to lead to the underworld. Homer, Vergil, and other ancient poets made Acheron the principal river of Hades. The rivers Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Styx were believed to be its tributaries. In Dante’s Divine Comedy, Acheron forms the boundary of hell, and on its shore all of those who have died in the wrath of God wait to be ferried across by Charon.

The origin of the river is explained to Dante by the poet Vergil. Shakespeare’s Macbeth (3.5.15) alludes to “the pit of Acheron,” in Titus Andronicus (4.3.44) it is a “burning lake,” and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3.2.357) the heaven is carved “with drooping fog as black as Acheron.” Milton’s Paradise Lost (2.578) makes Acheron one of the four infernal rivers, calling it “sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep.” Acheron, according to some European poets, stands for hell itself.