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In , Styx (; ; lit. "Shuddering"West 2003, p. 53 n. 11.), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the mother of , Nike, Kratos, and Bia. She sided with in his war against the Titans, and because of this, to honor her, Zeus decreed that the solemn oaths of the gods be sworn by the water of Styx.Jost, s.v. Styx; Antoni, s.v. Styx; Grimal, s.v. Styx; Tripp, s.v. Styx; Parada, s.v. Styx; Smith, s.v. Styx.

Family
According to the usual account, Styx was the eldest of the , the many daughters of the Titan , the great world-encircling river, and his sister-wife, the Titaness Tethys.Grimal, s.v. Styx; , 361–362, 775–776; Apollodorus, 1.2.2. Compare with , fr. 7 Fowler =, and 2 to Demeter (which both have Styx as the daughter of Oceanus without mentioning Tethys); , Hymn to Zeus 33–36. However, according to the Roman mythographer Hyginus, she was the daughter of Nox ("Night", the Roman equivalent of ) and (Darkness).Jost, s.v. Styx; Grimal, s.v. Styx; Hyginus, 1.2–1.5.

She married the Titan Pallas and by him gave birth to the personifications (Glory, Emulation), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Strength, Dominion), and Bia (Force, Violence).Gantz, pp. 25–26; , 383–385; Apollodorus, 1.2.4; Compare with Hyginus, 1.1–17.1–2, which gives the offspring of Pallas and Styx as Scylla, Force, Envy, Power, Victory, Fountains, and Lakes. The geographer Pausanias tells us that, according to , Styx was the mother of the monster Echidna, by an otherwise unknown Perias.Gantz, p. 22; Fowler 2013, p. 9; Pausanias, 8.18.2 =] =. Other authors give other parents for Echidna, see , 270–300 (where, according to Athanassakis, p. 44, her parents are "likely" and ); Apollodorus, 2.1.2 (Echidna is the daughter of and Gaia).

Although usually Demeter was the mother, by Zeus, of the underworld-goddess Persephone, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, it was Styx.Gantz, p. 64; Apollodorus, 1.3.1. For Demeter as mother, see, for example, , 912–913; 2 to Demeter, 1–5; Pausanias, 8.37.9. Compare with Hyginus, 26.1, which has as the daughter of Jove and Ceres. However, when Apollodorus relates the famous story of the abduction of Persephone, and the search for her by her angry and distraught mother, as usual, it is Demeter who conducts the search.Gantz, pp. 64–67; Apollodorus, 1.5.

Mythology
Oath of the gods
Styx was the oath of the gods. calls Styx the "dread river of oath". 2.755. In both the and the , it is said that swearing by the water of Styx is "the greatest and most dread oath for the blessed gods". Homer has (in the Iliad) say this when she swears by Styx to Zeus, that she is not to blame for Poseidon's intervention on the side of the Greeks in the , and he has Calypso (in the Odyssey) use the same words when she swears by Styx to that she will cease to plot against him. Also (in the Iliad) makes Hera swear to him "by the inviolable water of Styx"., 15.36–42 (Hera to Zeus), 14.271–278 (Hera to Hypnos), 5.184–187 (Calypso to Odysseus). Gantz, p. 29, calls such oaths in Homer "not overly common", noting that for Zeus, at least, a nod of his head was sufficient, with Zeus once calling such a nod the most sure witness, see 1.524–527.

Examples of oaths sworn by Styx also occur in the .Gantz, p. 29. Demeter asks the "implacable" water of Styx to be her witness, as she swears to , 2 to Demeter 259. swears to the personified by the water of Styx, calling it the "most powerful and dreadful oath that the blessed gods can swear", 3 to Apollo, 83–86. while asks to swear to him on the "dread" water of Styx. 4 to Hermes, 518–520.

, in the , gives an account of how this role for Styx came about. He says that, during the , the great war of Zeus and his fellow Olympians against Cronus and his fellow Titans, Zeus summoned "all the deathless gods to great Olympus" and promised, to whosoever would join him against the Titans, that he would preserve whatever rights and offices each had, or if they had none under Cronus, they would be given both under his rule. Styx, upon the advice of her father Oceanus, was the first to side with Zeus, bringing her children by Pallas along with her. And so in return Zeus appointed Styx to be "the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always."Gantz, pp. 29, 45; , 389–402. Compare with Apollodorus, 1.2.5. West 1966, p. 272, points out that this story of Styx being the first to come to Zeus' aid, by bringing her children, including Nike (Victory) and Kratos (Strength), to Zeus' side, is an aetiological myth explaining both why the gods swear by Styx, and why Victory and Strength reside for evermore with Zeus. West suggests that this myth can be imagined as having come about thought the following though process. "Why do the gods swear by Styx? Because Zeus so ordained. Why did he do so? In reward for some service performed for him by Styx. In what connexion? Most likely in connexion with the Titanomachy, for that was when Zeus most needed help. Then did she fight for him? Hardly in person: but she might have sent her children to fight for him. Then who can they have been, that he needed there help? Why, Victory and Strength; those were the gods he needed."

According to Hesiod, Styx lived at the entrance to Hades, in a cave "propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars".Tripp, s.v. Styx; Smith, s.v. Styx; , 775–779. Hesiod also tells us that Zeus would send Iris, the messenger of the gods, to fetch the "famous cold water" of Styx for the gods to swear by,, 780–786. Gantz, p. 29 calls this description of the oath as "rather strange", noting that elsewhere simply invoking Styx suffices. and describes the punishments which would follow the breaking of such an oath:Although Hesiod does provide consequences for the breaking of such an oath, Gantz, p. 29, says that "one might have thought it unbreakable".

The Roman poet has (the Roman equivalent of Zeus) swear by the waters of Styx when he promises :

and was then obliged to follow through even though he realized to his horror that Semele's request would lead to her death.Compare with Hyginus, 179; , 8.178–406, which relate the same story of Semele's death, though with no mention of Zeus having sworn to grant anything Semele wished for. Similarly Sol (the Roman equivalent of the Greek ) promised his son whatever he desired, which also resulted in the boy's death after he asked to drive his father's chariot for a day., 2.42–46.

River
The goddess Styx, like her father Oceanus, and his sons the river gods, was also a river, in her case, a river of the Underworld. According to Hesiod, Styx was given one-tenth of her father's water, which flowed far underground, and came up to the surface to pour out from a high rock:

In the Iliad the river Styx forms a boundary of Hades, the abode of the dead, in the Underworld.Gantz, pp. 124–125; Hard, p. 109. mentions the "sheer-falling waters of Styx" needing to be crossed when Heracles returned from Hades after capturing ,, 8.366–369. and 's shade begs Achilles to bury his corpse quickly so that he might "pass within the gates of Hades" and join the other dead "beyond the River"., 23.71–74. So too in 's , where the Styx winds nine times around the borders of Hades, and the boatman is in charge of ferrying the dead across it.Tripp, s.v. Styx; , 6.317–326, 6.384–390, 6.434–439. More usually, however, is the river (or lake) which separates the world of the living from the world of the dead.Hard, p. 109, p. 113; Gantz, pp. 124–125. The first mention of Acheron as the river the dead must cross is found in Alcaeus, fr. 38A Campbell =; compare with fr. 95 Campbell = where this is implied. See also for example , Seven Against Thebes 854–860; , Antigone 806–816; , Alcestis 435–444; Pausanias, 10.28.1; , 113d etc.

In the Odyssey, says that the Underworld river is a branch of the Styx.Hard, p. 109; Gantz, p. 29; Tripp, s.v. Styx; , 10.513–515. In 's Inferno, ferries Virgil and Dante across the foul waters of the river Styx which is portrayed as a marsh comprising the 's Fifth Circle, where the angry and sullen are punished.Dante, Inferno 7.106–130, 8.15–24.

By , the adjective stygian () came to refer to anything unpleasantly dark, gloomy, or forbidding.

Other
In the 2 to Demeter Persephone names Styx as one of her "frolicking" -companions when she was abducted by .Gantz, p. 29; 2 to Demeter, 418–423.

According to the , written by the Roman poet in the 1st century AD, when was born his mother tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx; however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him: his left heel.Burgess, p. 9; , 1.133–134, 269–270, 480–481; compare with Hyginus, 107 which says that Achilles' heel "was said to be vulnerable" but with no mention of him being dipped in the river Styx. And so Paris was able to kill Achilles during the by shooting an arrow into his heel.

In the second-century Metamorphoses of , one of the impossible trials which Venus imposed on Psyche was to fetch water from the Styx.Tripp, s.v. Psyche; Frazer on Pausanias 8.17.6; , Metamorphoses 6.13. Apuleius has the water guarded by fierce dragons ( dracones), and from the water itself came fearsome cries of deadly warning. The sheer impossibility of her task caused Psyche to become senseless, as if turned into stone., Metamorphoses 6.14. Jupiter's eagle admonishes Psyche saying:

The Arcadian Styx
Styx, along with the underworld rivers and , were associated with waterways in the upper world.Hard, p. 110. For example, according to Homer, the river , a tributary of the river Peneius in , was a branch of the Styx.Tripp, s.v. Styx; , 2.751–755; Pausanias, 8.18.2; , 7 fr. 15. However Styx has been most commonly associated with an Arcadian stream and waterfall (the ) that runs through a ravine on the North face of mount and flows into the river.Hard, p. 110; Grimal, s.v. Styx; Herodotus, 6.74 n.1; Frazer on Pausanias 8.17.6 (which gives a detailed description of Frazer's visit to the fall of the Styx in 1895). The fifth-century BC historian , locates this stream—calling it "the water of Styx"—as being near a town (in what was then ancient Arcadia and now modern ) not far from , and says that the king , would make men take oaths swearing by its water. Herodotus describes it as "a stream of small appearance, dropping from a cliff into a pool; a wall of stones runs round the pool".Hard, p. 110; , 6.74. See also Pliny, Natural History 31.26; , Alexander 77.2. Pausanias reports visiting the "water of the Styx" near Nonacris (which at the time of his visit, in the second century AD, was already a partially-buried ruins), saying that:

According to Aelian, caused the water of this Arcadian Styx "to well up in the neighbourhood of Pheneus".Aelian, De Natura Animalium 10.40. An ancient legend apparently also connected Demeter with this Styx. According to Photius, a certain Ptolemy Hephaestion (probably referring to ) knew of a story, "concerning the water of the Styx in Arcadia", which told how an angry Demeter had turned the Styx's water black.Photius, Bibliotheca codex 190. According to James George Frazer, this "fable" provided an explanation for the fact that, from a distance, the waterfall appears black.Frazer on Pausanias 8.17.6. Frazer says that, although the water of this Styx is "crystal clear", its black appearance is due to a "dark incrustation which spreads over the smooth face of the rock wherever it is washed by the falling water".

Water from this Styx was said to be poisonous and able to dissolve most substances.Grimal, s.v. Styx. The first-century natural philosopher Pliny, wrote that drinking its water caused immediate death,Pliny, Natural History 2.231, 31.26–27. and that the hoof of a female mule was the only material not "rotted" by its water.Pliny, Natural History 30.149. Compare with , Anabasis of Alexander 7.27. According to the poisonous water could only be held by an ass's hoof, since all other vessels would "be eaten through by it, owing to its coldness and pungency.", Alexander 77.2. While according to Pausanias, the only vessel that could hold the Styx's water (poisonous to both men and animals) was a horse's hoof.Pausanias, 8.17.6, 8.18.4–6, 8.19.3. Compare with Aelian , De Natura Animalium 10.40. There were ancient suspicions that Alexander the Great's death was caused by being poisoned with the water of this Styx.Mayor, pp. 54, 57–58. As , Anabasis of Alexander 7.27, and , Alexander 77.2 tell us, there were some who claimed that had provided the poisonous water. See, for example, Pliny, Natural History 30.149, which also claims that Aristotle had "discovered" the poisonous nature of the water of Styx.

The Arcadian Styx may have been named so after its mythological counterpart, but it is also possible that this Arcadian stream was the model for the mythological Styx.See for example Reclus, p. 230, who, when describing this Arcadian Styx, assumes the latter saying: "out of this sometimes sombre and sometimes gracious torrent, the ancients made the muddy Styx of the lower world, whose murky floods were forever stirred by the fatal ferryman, Charon". However according to Hard, p. 110, "There is no way of telling whether the traditional conception of the infernal river was influenced by knowledge of the Arcadian Styx and its falls, or whether, conversely, the Arcadian Styx was first given that name because its chilly falls resembled this of the Styx in Hesiod's description". The latter seems to be the case, at least, for the Styx in 's Metamorphoses, which has , addressing Psyche, give the following description:Frazer on Pausanias 8.17.6.

That Apuleius has his "black spring" being guarded by dragons, also suggests a connection between his Styx and two modern local names for the waterfall: the Black Water ( Mavro Nero) and the Dragon Water ( Drako Nero).Frazer on Pausanias 8.17.6; Reclus, p. 230. From the "fable" of Demeter turning the Styx black, and Apuleius's description, Frazer concludes that the names Black Water and Dragon Water, probably predate Styx as the name of the fall.

Moon
On 2 July 2013, "Styx" officially became the name of one of Pluto's moons. The other moons of Pluto (Charon, Nix, Hydra, and Kerberos) also have names from Greco-Roman mythology related to the underworld.

Genealogy
References in media
Modern theatre
  • 's 1997 play The Invention of Love begins with the protagonist, English classicist and poet A. E. Houseman, having passed and being ferried across the river Styx by Charon.
  • musical makes several references to the river Styx, particularly in "Wait For Me" and "Epic II". River Styx is reimagined as both a high and wide wall and a "river of stone" that separates the titular Hadestown from the rest of the Underworld.

Gallery
File:Paestum tombe lucanienne 1.jpg|Ferryman Charon embarks with the soul of the deceased. Fresco from an ancient tomb. File:Lytovchenko Olexandr Kharon.jpg| Charon carries souls across the river Styx by Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko. File:Idata Stigos.jpg|The waters of one possible source for the mythical Styx in the Aroanian mountains.

See also

Notes
Bibliography
Ancient sources

Modern sources
  • Antoni, Silke, s.v. Styx in Brill's New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. Online version.
  • Athanassakis, Apostolos N, Hesiod: Theogony, Works and days, Shield, JHU Press, 2004. .
  • Burgess, Jonathan S., The Death and Afterlife of Achilles, JHU Press, 2009. .
  • Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume I: Sappho and Alcaeus, Loeb Classical Library No. 142, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1990. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
  • Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. .
  • Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. .
  • , Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
  • Frazer, J. G., Pausanias's Description of Greece. Translated with a Commentary by J. G. Frazer. Vol IV. Commentary on Books VI-VIII, Macmillan, 1898. Internet Archive
  • Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. . Internet Archive.
  • Hard, Robin (2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books.
  • Jost, Madeleine, s.v. Styx in Oxford Classical Dictionary, digital edition
  • Mayor, Adrienne, "Alexander the Great: A Questionable Death" in History of Toxicology and Environmental Health: Toxicology in Antiquity Volume I, Philip Wexler (editor), Academic Press, 2014. .
  • Parada, Carlos, Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag, 1993. .
  • Reclus, Onésime, A Bird's-eye View of the World, Ticknor, 1892.
  • Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). .
  • West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. .
  • West, M. L. (2003), Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer, edited and translated by Martin L. West, Loeb Classical Library No. 496, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. . Online version at Harvard University Press.

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