Styx in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Styx

12 passages from 7 ancient authors that tell of Styx, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Styx was a Titan goddess in Greek mythology, daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, thus being one of the Oceanid sisters. She was the goddess of ... For the story in one place, read our article on Styx.

Hesiod (3)

Hesiod, Theogony 370–404Children of Hyperion and Crius; Styx and her sons (370-404)Theia bears Helios, Selene and Eos to Hyperion, and Eos bears the winds and the morning star; Crius and Eurybia's sons include Astraeus, Pallas and Perses. Styx, daughter of Oceanus, bears to Pallas Zelus, Nike, Cratos and Bia, and Zeus honours her as the great oath of the gods because she was first to support him against the Titans. The section ends as Phoebe comes to the embrace of Coeus.
Hesiod, Theogony 740–779The house of Night, Sleep and Death; Hades and Styx (740-779)In the great gulf beyond Tartarus' gates stands the home of Night, where Atlas holds up the sky and Night and Day greet one another as they cross a bronze threshold. Sleep and Death, children of Night, live there, followed by the halls of Hades and Persephone, guarded by a fearful hound, and the house of Styx.
Hesiod, Theogony 780–819Styx and the oath of the gods (780-819)Iris fetches water from the Styx, the eldest daughter of Oceanus, which the gods swear by. A god who perjures himself lies breathless for a year and is then barred from the feasts of the gods for nine years. Beyond lie the sources and limits of earth, sea and sky, and the Titans live beyond Chaos; Cottus and Gyes live on Ocean's foundations, and Briareos marries Poseidon's daughter.

Homer (1)

Homer, Iliad 15.1–77Zeus wakes and rebukes HeraThe Trojans flee over the ditch and the stakes, and Zeus wakes on Ida to see them in flight and Poseidon at work among the Achaeans. He rebukes Hera, reminding her how he once hung her from heaven with anvils on her feet, and she swears by the Styx that Poseidon acts of his own will. Zeus smiles and tells her to send Iris and Apollo to him.

Apollodorus (1)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.2.1–7Zeus and the Titanomachy; the children of the TitansZeus takes Metis as his ally, and she gives Cronus a drug that makes him disgorge the stone and his swallowed children. In the ten-year war the gods win once Zeus frees the prisoners in Tartarus and the Cyclopes give him thunder and lightning, Pluto a helmet and Poseidon a trident; the Titans are shut in Tartarus and the three brothers draw lots for sky, sea and the underworld. The rest of the section lists the offspring of the Titans, of Styx, and of Sea and Earth, ending with the Nereids.

Apollonius Rhodius (1)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.178–300Phineus and the HarpiesPhineus tells the heroes how Zeus blinded him for misusing his gift of prophecy, and how the Harpies snatch his food. Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, chase the Harpies away from his table, and Iris stops them from killing them by swearing on the Styx that the Harpies will not trouble Phineus again.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.1–85Orpheus and EurydiceHymen, called to the wedding of Orpheus and Eurydice, comes with a smoking torch and an ill omen, and Eurydice is bitten by a snake and dies. Orpheus goes down to the underworld and sings before Hades (Pluto) and Persephone (Proserpina), and the shades, even the Furies, weep, and Tantalus, Ixion and Sisyphus forget their torments. He is allowed to lead Eurydice back on condition that he does not look back, but as they near the light he turns to see her, and she slips away. Orpheus then shuns women and gives his love to the young men of Thrace.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.1–100The palace of the Sun; Phaethon's requestPhaethon comes to the palace of the Sun, with its columns of gold and its doors of silver, and stands before the god, who sits in splendour surrounded by the Day, the Month, the Year, the Hours and the Seasons. Helios, the Sun ('Phoebus' in More's translation), embraces him as his son and swears by the Styx to grant whatever he asks, and Phaethon asks to drive the chariot for a day. The Sun tries to dissuade him, describing the steep ascent, the beasts of the zodiac and the speed of the sky.

Pausanias (3)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.18.1–8Nonacris: the water of the Styx and the daughters of ProetusPausanias gathers the poetic references to the Styx in Hesiod, Epimenides and Homer, and describes the water trickling down the cliff at Nonacris. It is deadly to creatures and breaks or corrodes almost everything except a horse's hoof, and he reports without confirming that Alexander died of it. He also tells how the daughters of Proetus fled to a cave in the Aroanian mountains and were healed of madness at Lusi by Melampus, so that the local Artemis was called Hemerasia.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.17.1–6Mount Cyllene: the temple of Hermes and the white blackbirdsPausanias describes Mount Cyllene, the highest in Arcadia, with a ruined temple of Cyllenian Hermes whose image of juniper wood he judged to be about eight feet high. He lists the woods used for old images, and says the blackbirds on Cyllene are white, citing other white animals he has seen. He also mentions Mount Chelydorea, where Hermes made the first lyre from a tortoise shell, the road west from Pheneus to Clitor and Nonacris, and the cliff there called the water of the Styx.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.19.1–8.20.4Cynaethae and the Ladon: the Dionysus bull rite, the spring Alyssus and DaphnePausanias describes the Arcadian people of Cynaethae, with their winter festival of Dionysus, at which men grease their bodies and carry a chosen bull to the sanctuary, and the spring Alyssus that heals those bitten by mad dogs. He then follows the road from Pheneus to Clitor, beside the channel of Hercules, to the springs of the Ladon. He recounts the Arcadian and Elean story of Daphne, in which Leucippus disguised himself as a girl to win her, and was discovered and killed by her and her companions at the Ladon.

Nonnus of Panopolis (1)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 44.253–318Book 44: The Furies and Dionysos drive the Theban women to the mountainPersephone sends a Fury who sprinkles water of Styx and Cocytos over Agaue's rooms and buries the knife of Procne under a fir tree on Cithaeron, smearing it with Gorgon's blood. Dionysos, wearing a bull's head, enters the palace and drives the women mad. He calls to Autonoe with a false tale that her son Actaeon lives and is the lover of Artemis, urging her to run to the mountains.