Phlegethon
conceptThe river of fire in the Greek underworld, whose flames burned without consuming.
The Myth
Five rivers defined the geography of Hades, and Phlegethon was the most terrifying — a torrent of liquid fire that roared through the underworld without ever dying out. Its name comes from the Greek phlegethein, meaning "to blaze." Plato describes it in the Phaedo as a river of fire that flows into a vast boiling lake in Tartarus, where murderers and those guilty of violence are cast. They are swept along by the burning current until they pass the shores of those they wronged and must beg forgiveness to escape. Homer places Phlegethon as a tributary of the Acheron, where the river of fire pours into the river of woe. Dante later borrowed the river wholesale for his Inferno, making it the boiling blood-river of the seventh circle where the violent are submerged. The Stoics interpreted Phlegethon as the cosmic fire that periodically consumes and renews the universe. In later tradition the river acquired a guardian — sometimes Phlegyas, the mortal who burned Apollo's temple and was condemned to eternal punishment beside the flames he loved.
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Symbols
Fun Fact
Phlegethon shares its root with "phlegm" — the Greeks believed phlegm was produced by internal heat, connecting bodily fire to the underworld river.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
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Hades
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Hades (Unseen One)
godThe ruler of the Underworld who received the dead, guarded by Cerberus and feared so deeply that...
Tartarus
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