Editing Acheron (section)

==Mythology==
Ancient [[Greek mythology]] saw the Acheron, sometimes known as the "river of woe", as one of the five rivers of the [[Greek underworld]].<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 |last1                = March
 |first1               = Jennifer
 |title                = The Penguin Book of Classical Myths
 |date = 5 June 2008
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=PgzMJAQr_skC
 |edition              = reprint
 |publisher            = Penguin UK
 |publication-date     = 2008
 |isbn                 = 9780141920597
 |access-date          = 15 March 2022
 |quote                = His [Hades'] subterranean realm was a chill and sunless place, watered by five rivers: the Styx (Hateful River), the Acheron (River of Woe), the Kokytos (River of Lamentation), the Phlegethon (River of Flame), and the Lethe (River of Forgetfulness).
}} 
</ref> The name is of uncertain etymology.<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 182.</ref>

Most classical accounts, including [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (10.28) and later [[Dante]]'s ''Inferno'' (3.78), portray the Acheron as the entrance to the Underworld and depict [[Charon]] ferrying the souls of the dead across it. Ancient Greek literary sources such as [[Pindar]], [[Aeschylus]], [[Euripides]], [[Plato]], and [[Callimachus]] also place Charon on the Acheron. Roman poets, including [[Propertius]], [[Ovid]], and [[Statius]], name the river as the [[Styx]], perhaps following the geography of [[Virgil]]'s underworld in the ''[[Aeneid]],'' where Charon is associated with both rivers.

The [[Homer]]ic poems describe the Acheron as a river of [[Hades]], into which [[Cocytus]] and [[Phlegethon]] both flowed.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[The Odyssey]]'' x. 513</ref><ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' i. 17, § 5</ref>

The Roman poet [[Virgil]] called the Acheron the principal river of [[Tartarus]], from which the [[Styx (mythology)|Styx]] and the Cocytus both sprang.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' vi. 297</ref>  The newly dead would be ferried across the Acheron by [[Charon (mythology)|Charon]] in order to enter the Underworld.<ref>Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 6. 323</ref>  
[[File:The Vestibule of Hell and Souls Mustering to Cross the Acheron Blake.jpg |thumb| [[William Blake]]'s depiction of "The Vestibule of Hell and the Souls Mustering to Cross the Acheron" in his ''Illustrations to Dante's "Divine Comedy"'', object 5, {{circa}} 1824–27. The original for the work is held by the [[National Gallery of Victoria]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=but812.1.wc.05 | publisher = [[William Blake Archive]]| title = Illustrations to Dante's "Divine Comedy", object 5 (Butlin 812.5) "The Vestibule of Hell and the Souls Mustering to Cross the Acheron"|editor= Morris Eaves |editor2= Robert N. Essick |editor3= Joseph Viscomi| access-date = January 25, 2015}}</ref>]]

The [[Suda]] describes the river as "a place of healing, not a place of punishment, cleansing and purging the sins of humans".<ref>[http://www.stoa.org/sol/ Suda On Line]</ref>

According to later traditions, Acheron had been a son of [[Helios]] and either [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] or [[Demeter]], who was turned into the Underworld river bearing his name after he refreshed the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]] with drink during their contest with [[Zeus]].<ref>[[Natalis Comes]]. ''Mythologiae, 3.1''</ref> By this myth, Acheron is also the father of [[Ascalaphus (son of Acheron)|Ascalaphus]] by either [[Orphne]]<ref>[[Ovid]], ''Metamorphoses'' 5. 539</ref> or [[Gorgyra]].<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'' 1. 33</ref>

The river called Acheron with the nearby ruins of the [[Necromanteion]] (oratory of the dead) is found near [[Parga]] on the mainland of Greece opposite [[Corfu]]. Another branch of Acheron was believed to surface at the Acherusian cape (now [[Karadeniz Ereğli]] in [[Turkey]]) and was seen by the [[Argonauts]] according to [[Apollonius of Rhodes]]. Greeks who settled in Italy identified the Acherusian lake into which Acheron flowed with Lake [[Avernus]]. [[Plato]] in his ''Phaedo'' identified Acheron as the second greatest river in the world, excelled only by [[Oceanus]].
[[File:Gustave Dore, The Divine comedy, Inferno, plate 9, Charon, The Ferryman of Hell.jpg|thumb|Following Greek mythology, [[Charon (mythology)|Charon]] ferries souls across the Acheron to Hell. Those who were neutral in life sit on the banks.]]

He claimed that Acheron flowed in the opposite direction from [[Oceanus]] beneath the earth under desert places. The word is also occasionally used as a [[synecdoche]] for Hades itself. [[Virgil]] mentions Acheron with the other infernal rivers in his description of the underworld in Book VI of the ''[[Aeneid]]''. In Book VII, line 312<ref>Line 312 in the conventional lineation, see J.W. Mackail (Editor and Translator), ''The AEneid'' (Clarendon press, Oxford: 1930), p. 271.</ref> he gives to Juno the famous saying, ''flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo'': 'If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell.' The same words were used by [[Sigmund Freud]] as the dedicatory motto for his seminal book ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', figuring Acheron as psychological underworld beneath the conscious mind.

The Acheron was sometimes referred to as a lake or swamp in Greek literature, as in [[Aristophanes]]' ''[[The Frogs]]'' and [[Euripides]]' ''[[Alcestis]]''.

[[File:Gustave Doré - Dante Alighieri - Inferno - Plate 10 (Canto III - Charon herds the sinners onto his boat).jpg|thumb|In the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', Charon forces reluctant sinners onto his boat by beating them with his oar. Illustration by [[Gustave Doré]].]]

In [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', the Acheron river forms the border of [[Hell]]. Following Greek mythology, [[Charon (mythology)|Charon]] ferries souls across this river to Hell. Those who were neutral in life sit on the banks.