| Styx | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Other Names |
River Styx |
|
First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
|
Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
In Greek mythology, Styx, also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. 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.
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. However, according to the Roman mythographer Hyginus, she was the daughter of Nox ("Night", the Roman equivalent of Nyx) and Erebus (Darkness).
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). The geographer Pausanias tells us that, according to Epimenides of Crete, Styx was the mother of the monster Echidna, by an otherwise unknown Perias.
Although usually Demeter was the mother, by Zeus, of the underworld-goddess Persephone, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, it was Styx. 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.
Styx was the oath of the gods. Homer calls Styx the "dread river of oath". In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, it is said that swearing by the water of Styx, is "the greatest and most dread oath 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".
In the Iliad the river Styx forms a boundary of Hades, the abode of the dead, in the Underworld. Athena mentions the "sheer-falling waters of Styx" needing to be crossed when Heracles returned from Hades after capturing Cerberus, and Patroclus's shade begs Achilles to bury his corpse quickly so that he might "pass within the gates of Hades" and join the other dead "beyond the River". So too in Virgil's Aeneid, where the Styx winds nine times around the borders of Hades, and the boatman Charon is in charge of ferrying the dead across it. More usually, however, Acheron is the river (or lake) which separates the world of the living from the world of the dead.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Styx from before January 1, 1931 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- The Iliad
- The Odyssey
- Theogony
- The Homeric Hymns
- Fragments
- Histories
- Phaedo
- Republic
- The Library
- Hymns
- Alexandra
- Geography
- Description of Greece
- On Animals
- Fall of Troy
- Dionysiaca
- New History
- Fabulae
- Metamorphoses
- Fasti
- Aeneid
- Georgics
- Hercules Furens
- Medea
- Oedipus
- Phaedra
- Troades
- Achilleid
- The Golden Ass
- The Suda
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- The Unseen #10:Mark Denton is ruthlessly killed by his unfaithful wife and a rival. The ferryman across the Styx grants him return to life to wreak his vengeance.
- National Comics #2:Merlin continues his travels to the River Styx, where he saves a wayward damsel from a dead Prince.
- Strange World of Your Dreams #1: The cover illustration features the caption "I dreamed that I had died and an old man with the face of a prophet was taking me across The River Styx!"
Public Domain Comic Appearances Inspired by Styx[]
Appearances of Dr. Styx[]
- Treasure Comics #2-6