Lake Avernus
A volcanic crater lake near Cumae believed to be an entrance to the Underworld, whose noxious fumes were said to kill birds flying overhead.
The Story of Lake Avernus
Lake Avernus, whose Greek name Aornos means "birdless," was a deep volcanic crater lake near Cumae in southern Italy. Its still, dark waters and the sulphurous fumes rising from nearby volcanic vents convinced the Greeks that it was a gateway to the realm of Hades. The Cumaean Sibyl, prophetess of Apollo, led Aeneas to the Underworld through a cave on its shores. Before descending, Aeneas plucked the Golden Bough — sacred to Persephone — that granted living mortals safe passage among the dead. Odysseus had earlier sailed to a similar entrance point. The Cimmerians, a mythological people who lived in eternal darkness, dwelt nearby. Orpheus was said to have descended to retrieve Eurydice through such an entrance. In historical times, Agrippa connected Avernus to the sea via a tunnel, converting the mythological gateway to hell into a Roman naval port.
Symbols
Fun Fact
Lake Avernus's reputation was so powerful that "Avernus" became a Latin synonym for the Underworld itself. Virgil's line "facilis descensus Averno" — "the descent to Avernus is easy" — is still quoted to warn that bad habits are easier to start than stop. The lake is now a peaceful nature reserve near Naples, and tourists swim in what the ancients believed was the entrance to Hell.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Locus Avernus
🏛 placegeography
The volcanic lake near Cumae in Italy used by Aeneas as an entrance to the Underworld in Virgil's Aeneid.
Taenarum
🏛 placeSacred geography
A promontory at the southern tip of the Peloponnese believed to contain an entrance to the underworld
Lerna
🏛 placeSwamp 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.
Acheron
🏛 placeRiver of Woe in the underworld
The Acheron was the River of Woe in the underworld, which the dead had to cross — in some traditions it was Charon's river rather than the Styx.
Cape Taenarum
🏛 placeEntrance 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.
Acheron River
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The river of woe in the Greek underworld across which the dead were ferried by Charon
Hades
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The vast underground kingdom of the dead ruled by the god Hades and his queen Persephone
Oracle of the Dead
🏛 placeunderworld, prophecy
The Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra in Epirus where the living consulted ghosts of the deceased through elaborate underground rituals.
Underworld
🏛 placeRealm 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.
Tartarus
🏛 placeThe deepest pit of the underworld
The deepest abyss beneath the earth, as far below Hades as heaven is above earth. Tartarus was the prison of the Titans and the ultimate place of punishment.
Asphodel Fields
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The vast grey meadow in the underworld where the majority of ordinary souls wandered after death
Samothrace
🏛 placeIsland of the Kabeiroi Mysteries
Samothrace was a mountainous island in the northern Aegean, home to a mystery cult second only to Eleusis.