Editing Styx (section)

==The Arcadian Styx==
Styx, along with the underworld rivers [[Cocytus]] and [[Acheron]], were associated with waterways in the upper world.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA110 p. 110].</ref> For example, according to Homer, the river [[Titarisios|Titaressus]], a tributary of the river [[Pineios (Thessaly)|Peneius]] in [[Thessaly]], was a branch of the Styx.<ref>Tripp, s.v. Styx; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.734-2.779 2.751&ndash;755]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.18.2 8.18.2]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7.fragments.15 7 fr. 15].</ref> However Styx has been most commonly associated with an Arcadian stream and waterfall (the [[Mavroneri|Mavronéri]]) that runs through a ravine on the North face of mount [[Chelmos]] and flows into the [[Krathis]] river.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA110 p. 110]; Grimal, s.v. Styx; Herodotus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:6.74 6.74 n.1]; [[James George Frazer|Frazer]] on Pausanias [https://archive.org/details/pausaniassdescr01pausgoog/page/n272/mode/2up?view=theater 8.17.6] (which gives a detailed description of Frazer's visit to the fall of the Styx in 1895).</ref> The fifth-century BC historian [[Herodotus]], locates this stream&mdash;calling it "the water of Styx"&mdash;as being near [[Nonacris]] a town (in what was then ancient [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadia]] and now modern [[Achaea]]) not far from [[Pheneus]], and says that the [[Sparta]]n king [[Cleomenes I|Cleomenes]], 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".<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA110 p. 110]; [[Herodotus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:6.74 6.74]. See also [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL418.393.xml 31.26]; [[Plutarch]], ''Alexander'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243%3Achapter%3D77%3Asection%3D2 77.2].</ref> 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:

{{blockquote|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.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.17.6 8.17.6].</ref>}}

According to [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], [[Demeter]] caused the water of this Arcadian Styx "to well up in the neighbourhood of Pheneus".<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''[[De Natura Animalium]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aelian-characteristics_animals/1958/pb_LCL448.335.xml 10.40].</ref> An ancient legend apparently also connected Demeter with this Styx. According to [[Photius I of Constantinople|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.<ref>[[Photius I of Constantinople|Photius]], ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Bibliotheca]]'' [https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/photius_copyright/photius_05bibliotheca.htm#190 codex 190].</ref> According to [[James George Frazer]], this "fable" provided an explanation for the fact that, from a distance, the waterfall appears black.<ref>[[James George Frazer|Frazer]] on Pausanias [https://archive.org/details/pausaniassdescr01pausgoog/page/n272/mode/2up?view=theater 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".</ref>

Water from this Styx was said to be poisonous and able to dissolve most substances.<ref>Grimal, s.v. Styx.</ref> The first-century [[natural philosopher]] [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], wrote that drinking its water caused immediate death,<ref>[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL330.359.xml 2.231], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL418.393.xml 31.26&ndash;27].</ref> and that the hoof of a female mule was the only material not "rotted" by its water.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL418.373.xml 30.149]. Compare with [[Arrian]], ''[[Anabasis of Alexander]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/arrian-anabasis_alexander/1976/pb_LCL269.295.xml 7.27].</ref> 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."<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Alexander'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243%3Achapter%3D77%3Asection%3D2 77.2].</ref> 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.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.17.6 8.17.6], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.18.4 8.18.4&ndash;6], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.19.3 8.19.3]. Compare with [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]]'', [[De Natura Animalium]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aelian-characteristics_animals/1958/pb_LCL448.335.xml 10.40].</ref> There were ancient suspicions that Alexander the Great's death was caused by being poisoned with the water of this Styx.<ref>Mayor, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=igrUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 54], [https://books.google.com/books?id=igrUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 57&ndash;58]. As [[Arrian]], ''[[Anabasis of Alexander]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/arrian-anabasis_alexander/1976/pb_LCL269.295.xml 7.27], and [[Plutarch]], ''Alexander'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243%3Achapter%3D77%3Asection%3D2 77.2] tell us, there were some who claimed that [[Aristotle]] had provided the poisonous water. See, for example, [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL418.373.xml 30.149], which also claims that Aristotle had "discovered" the poisonous nature of the water of Styx.</ref>

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.<ref>See for example Reclus, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Es0LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA230 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, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA110 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".</ref> The latter seems to be the case, at least, for the Styx in [[Apuleius]]'s ''[[The Golden Ass|Metamorphoses]]'', which has [[Venus]], addressing [[Psyche (mythology)|Psyche]], give the following description:<ref>[[James George Frazer|Frazer]] on Pausanias [https://archive.org/details/pausaniassdescr01pausgoog/page/n272/mode/2up?view=theater 8.17.6].</ref>
{{blockquote|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.<ref>[[Apuleius]], ''[[The Golden Ass|Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/apuleius-metamorphoses/1989/pb_LCL044.277.xml 6.13].</ref>}}
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'').<ref>[[James George Frazer|Frazer]] on Pausanias [https://archive.org/details/pausaniassdescr01pausgoog/page/n272/mode/2up?view=theater 8.17.6]; Reclus, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Es0LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA230 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.</ref>