Acheron

Underworld geography

The river of woe in the Greek underworld across which the dead were ferried by Charon

Realm of the dead

The Underworld was the vast subterranean realm where all mortal souls went after death — a geography of rivers, fields, and judges more detailed than any other mythological afterlife.

The river of the underworld

The great river that formed the boundary between the world of the living and the realm of the dead. Oaths sworn on the Styx were absolutely binding, even for gods.

Underworld geography

The vast underground kingdom of the dead ruled by the god Hades and his queen Persephone

underworld, prophecy

The Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra in Epirus where the living consulted ghosts of the deceased through elaborate underground rituals.

Swamp of the Hydra

Lerna was a marshy region near Argos, famed as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra and believed to contain one of the entrances to the underworld.

Entrance to the underworld

Cape Taenarum (modern Cape Matapan) at the southern tip of the Peloponnese was one of the most famous entrances to the underworld.

underworld,rivers

One of the five rivers of the underworld, whose name means "the river of wailing" — the waters of lamentation that the unburied dead wandered beside for one hundred years.

Sacred geography

A promontory at the southern tip of the Peloponnese believed to contain an entrance to the underworld

underworld, entrance

A volcanic crater lake near Cumae believed to be an entrance to the Underworld, whose noxious fumes were said to kill birds flying overhead.

Underworld geography

The vast grey meadow in the underworld where the majority of ordinary souls wandered after death

Paradise for the blessed dead

The paradise at the edge of the world where heroes and the virtuous spent eternity in perfect happiness. Also called the Elysian Fields or the Isles of the Blessed.