Symbol styx

For the blessed gods". Homer has Hera (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 Trojan War, and he has Calypso (in the Odyssey) use the same words when she swears by Styx to Odysseus that she will cease to plot against him. Also Hypnos (in the Iliad) makes Hera swear to him "by the inviolable water of Styx".[10]Examples of oaths sworn by Styx also occur in the Homeric Hymns.[11] Demeter asks the "implacable" water of Styx to be her witness, as she swears to Metaneira,[12] Leto swears to the personified Delos by the water of Styx, calling it the "most powerful and dreadful oath that the blessed gods can swear",[13] while Apollo asks Hermes to swear to him on the "dread" water of Styx.[14]Hesiod, in the Theogony, gives an account of how this role for Styx came about. He says that, during the Titanomachy, 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."[15]According to Hesiod, Styx lived at the entrance to Hades, in a cave "propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars".[16] Hesiod also tells us that Zeus would send

This article is about the goddess and river in Greek mythology. For the rock band, see Styx (band). For other uses, see Styx (disambiguation).In Greek mythology, Styx (; Ancient Greek: Στύξ [stýks]; lit. "Shuddering"[1]), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia. She sided with Zeus 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.[2]According to the usual account, Styx was the eldest of the Oceanids, the many daughters of the Titan Oceanus, the great world-encircling river, and his sister-wife, the Titaness Tethys.[3] However, according to the Roman mythographer Hyginus, she was the daughter of Nox ("Night", the Roman equivalent of Nyx) and Erebus (Darkness).[4]She married the Titan Pallas and by him gave birth to the personifications Zelus (Glory, Emulation), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Strength, Dominion), and Bia (Force, Violence).[5] The geographer Pausanias tells us that, according to Epimenides of Crete, Styx was the mother of the monster Echidna, by an otherwise unknown Perias.[6]Although usually Demeter was the mother, by Zeus, of the underworld-goddess Persephone, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, it was Styx.[7] 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.[8]Oath of the godsStyx was the oath of the gods. Homer calls Styx the "dread river of oath".[9] In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, it is said that swearing by the water of Styx, is "the greatest and most dread oath

At the time of his visit, in the second century AD, was already a partially-buried ruins), saying that:Not far from the ruins is a high cliff; I know of none other that rises to so great a height. A water trickles down the cliff, called by the Greeks the water of the Styx.[42]According to Aelian, Demeter caused the water of this Arcadian Styx "to well up in the neighbourhood of Pheneus".[43] An ancient legend apparently also connected Demeter with this Styx. According to Photius, a certain Ptolemy Hephaestion (probably referring to Ptolemy Chennus) 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.[44] According to James George Frazer, this "fable" provided an explanation for the fact that, from a distance, the waterfall appears black.[45]Water from this Styx was said to be poisonous and able to dissolve most substances.[46] The first-century natural philosopher Pliny, wrote that drinking its water caused immediate death,[47] and that the hoof of a female mule was the only material not "rotted" by its water.[48] According to Plutarch 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."[49] 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.[50] There were ancient suspicions that Alexander the Great's death was caused by being poisoned with the water of this Styx.[51]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.[52] The latter seems to be the case, at least, for the Styx in Apuleius's Metamorphoses, which has Venus,

Addressing Psyche, give the following description:[53]Do you see that steep mountain-peak standing above the towering cliff? Dark waves flow down from a black spring on that peak and are enclosed by the reservoir formed by the valley nearby, to water the swamps of Styx and feed the rasping currents of Cocytus.[54]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).[55]On 2 July 2013, "Styx" officially became the name of one of Pluto's moons.[56] The other moons of Pluto (Charon, Nix, Hydra, and Kerberos) also have names from Greco-Roman mythology related to the underworld.Family of Eurybia and CriusPontusGaiaUranusEurybiaCriusAstraeusEosPersesAsteriaPallasStyxBoreasAstraeaHecateZelusKratos NotusEosphorusNikeBiaEurusStarsZephyrusFerryman Charon embarks with the soul of the deceased. Fresco from an ancient Lucanian tomb.Charon carries souls across the river Styx by Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko.The waters of one possible source for the mythical Styx in the Aroanian mountains.Gjöll - Norse mythologyHitfun - Mandaean mythologyHubur - Mesopotamian mythologySanzu River - Japanese BuddhismVaitarna River (mythological) - Hinduism and BuddhismStygimolochStyxosaurus