Phlegethon

"the flaming." I.e. "the flaming," one of the five rivers of the underworld, described as a son of Cocytus. It consists of a fire which burns but does not consume. It flows into the river Acheron and there is a huge waterfall where the two rivers meet. The other rivers are the Styx, the Cocytus, and the Lethe.

It is more commonly called Pyriphlegethon (Πυριφλεγέθων),1 "flaming with fire."

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The name refers to the Greek word phlego, "to burn."

References

Notes

  1. Homer. Odyssey x, 513; Strabo. Geography v, p. 244.

Sources

  • Plutarch. Quaestiones Convivale viii, 9.
  • Seneca. Thyestes, 1018; Oedipus, 162; Agamemnon, 752.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Statius. Thebaid iv, 522.
  • Virgil. Aeneid vi, 265, 550.