The Goddess Styx in Greek mythology is both a deity and a river. Her river is the threshold between the earth and the underworld. Charon the ferryman carries the deceased across the river Styx threshold so they could enter the underworld. All oaths were taken by the deities in the presence of Styx.
The river Styx is just one of 5 rivers in the Stygian landscape of the Greek underworld. Their names were meant to reflect the emotions associated with death.
- The LETHE is the river of oblivion, time, memory and forgiveness
- The PHLEGETHON was the turbulent river of fire, change, truth,and light
- The COCYTUS is the river of wailing , heartbreak, distress and lamentation.
- The ACHERON is the river of pain, woe and sorrow.
- The STYX is the most prominent river of the underworld It’s known as the river of hatred, immortality and unbreakable promises .
“When death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?”...Mary Oliver ( continued below)
STX – PASSAGE TO THE UNDERWORLD
I AM THRESHOLD
When Death Comes By Mary Oliver
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up having simply visited this world.
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