in Fabulous History, a river of hell, round which it flows nine times. The gods held the waters of the Styx in such veneration, that to swear by them was reckoned an oath altogether inviolable. If any of the gods had perjured themselves, Jupiter obliged them to drink the waters of the Styx, which lulled them for one whole year into a senseless stupidity; for the nine following years they were deprived of the ambrosia and the nectar of the gods; and after the expiration of the years of their punishment, they were restored to the assembly of the deities, and to all their original privileges. It is said that this veneration was shown to the Styx, because it received its name from the nymph Styx, who with her three daughters assisted Jupiter in his war against the Titans.

Styx was a river which it was necessary for departed shades to pass before they could enter the internal regions; and it was the office of Charon to ferry them over. Mythological writers have said that the Egyptians framed both this and some other fables relating to the dead, from certain customs peculiar to their country; that in particular there was, not far from Memphis, a famous burying-place, to which the dead bodies were conveyed in a boat across the lake Acherusia; and that Charon was a boatman who had long officiated in that service. The learned Dr Blackwell, in his Life of Homer, has observed, that, in the old Egyptian language, Charoni signified "ferryman."