The river Styx

The river Styx serves as a barrier separating the world of the living from the world of the dead.

In order to cross the River Styx and reach Hades, a dead person must pay a fee to the ferryman, Charon. If the correct fee is paid, Charon will take the dead across. If the dead cannot afford the fee, however, they will be forced to wander the banks of the River Styx.

 

The greatest oath that a god can make is to swear on the river Styx. When a god swears on the River Styx, they're bound for all eternity to keep that promise or else be paralysed for a year and a day, and even then, risk being ostracized from Mount Olympus and their duties and immortality being removed and given to another god.

 

Bodies dipped into the river will receive the gift of immortality; one famous example is when Thetis, mother of the demigod Achilles, dipped him into the river by his heel. This ensured he could only be harmed at his heel, a fact exploited by Apollo and later giving rise to the phrase "Achilles' heel".

 

Macro Mondays

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Bone

Frontal suture on the skull of a roe deer

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