Toynbee "Fiumi Infernali"
rivers of Hell, Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and Cocytus, which originate in the tears of the 'gran veglio di Creta',
[Inf. xiv. 115-120]
.
[Creta.]
These rivers appear in reality to be one and the same stream, which assumes different names and different aspects on its course through Hell. At first it bears the name of Acheron, and forms the boundary of Hell proper (
[Inf. iii. 78]
)
[Acheronte]
; after being lost for a time it reappears in Circle IV in the shape of a boiling black spring, the waters of which form the filthy marsh of Styx (
[Inf. vii. 101-107]
)
[Stige]
; again disappearing, it emerges from the wood of Suicides as the blood-red stream of Phlegethon (
[Inf. xiv. 76-78]
)
[Flegetonta]
; and finally flows down to the bottom of Hell, where it forms the frozen lake of Cocytus (
[Inf. xiv. 118-120]
)
[Cocito]
.
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press
