Acheron
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- For the Florida death metal band, see Acheron (band).
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The Acheron river is in the Epirus region of north west Greece. Acheron translates as "river of woe" and is believed to be a branch of the underworld river Acheron over which in ancient Greek mythology Charon ferried the newly dead souls across into Hades.
The lake called Acherousia and the river still called Acheron with the nearby ruins of the Necromanteion are found near Parga on the mainland opposite Corfu.
Another branch of Acheron was believed to surface at the Acherusian cape (now Eregli in Turkey) and was seen by the Argonauts according to Apollonius of Rhodes.
Greeks settled in Italy identified the Acherusian lake into which Acheron flowed with Lake Avernus.
Plato in his Phaedo identified Acheron as the second greatest river in the world, excelled only by Oceanus. He claimed that Acheron flowed in the opposite direction from Oceanus beneath the earth under desert places.
The word is also occasionally used as a synecdoche for Hades itself.
The god of the river fathered Ascalaphus with Orphne or Gorgyra.
Virgil mentions Acheron with the other infernal rivers in his description of the underworld in Book VI of the Aeneid.
In Dante's Inferno, the Acheron river forms the border of Hell, in the Ante-Inferno. Following Greek mythology, Charon ferries souls across this river to Hell.
Modern Influences
- In the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the Acheron was a French privateer.
- In Robert E. Howard's antediluvian world, Acheron was a kingdom of darkness that Kull the Conqueror fought to keep from resurfacing.
- In Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Acheron is one of the seventeen Outer Planes.
- In the video-game Soul Calibur II, Acheron is the name of one of the swords of the character Cervantes.
- In the Alien movie series, Acheron is another name for the moon LV-426.
- In Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, Acheron Hades is the name of a diabolical villain killed by Thursday in The Eyre Affair.
- Acheron is the leader and caretaker of the Dark Hunters in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series.
- Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been given the name HMS Acheron.
- Acheron is the main protagonist of Inverloch webcomic.
- In their Ancient Dreams album, Swedish Doom Metal band Candlemass included a song titled "The Bells of Acheron", which became very popular with their fans.bg:Ахерон
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