Hesiod has represented Styx in his Theogony, (for there are some who
assign the Theogony to Hesiod), as the daughter of Oceanus and the wife
of Pallas. Linus too they say has represented the same. But the verses
of Linus (all of which I have read) seem to me spurious. Epimenides the
Cretan also has represented Styx as the daughter of Oceanus, but not
as the wife of Pallas, but of Piras, whoever he was, to whom she bare
Echidna. And Homer has frequently introduced the Styx into his poetry.
For example in the oath of Hera,
“Witness me now Earth and high Heaven above
And water of the Styx, that trickles down.”[28]
Here he represents the water of the Styx dripping down as you may see
it. But in the catalogue of those who went with Guneus he makes the
water of the Styx flow into the river Titaresius.[29] He has also
represented the Styx as a river of Hades, and Athene says that Zeus
does not remember that she saved Hercules in it in one of the Labours
imposed by Eurystheus.
“For could I have foreseen what since has chanced,
When he was sent to Hades jailor dread
To bring from Erebus dread Hades’ Cerberus,
He would not have escaped the streams of Styx.”
(Il. viii. 366-369.)
Now the water that drips from the cliff near Nonacris falls first upon
a lofty rock, and oozes through it into the river Crathis, and its
water is deadly both to man and beast. It is said also that it was
deadly to goats who first drank of the water. But in time this was well
known, as well as other mysterious properties of the water. Glass and
crystal and porcelain, and various articles made of stone, and pottery
ware, are broken by the water of the Styx. And things made of horn,
bone, iron, brass, lead, tin, silver, and amber, melt when put into
this water. Gold also suffers from it as all other metals, although one
can purify gold from rust, as the Lesbian poetess Sappho testifies, and
as anyone can test by experiment. The deity has as it seems granted to
things which are least esteemed the property of being masters of things
held in the highest value. For pearls are melted by vinegar, and the
adamant, which is the hardest of stones, is melted by goat’s blood.
A horse’s hoof alone is proof against the water of the Styx, for if
poured into a hoof the hoof is not broken. Whether Alexander the son of
Philip really died of this poisonous water of the Styx I do not know,
but there is a tradition to that effect.
Beyond Nonacris there are some mountains called Aroania and a cave
in them, into which they say the daughters of Prœtus fled when they
went mad, till Melampus brought them back to a place called Lusi,
and cured them by secret sacrifices and purifications. The people of
Pheneus graze their flocks on most of the mountains Aroania, but Lusi
is on the borders of Clitor. It was they say formerly a town, and
Agesilaus a native of it was proclaimed victor with a race-horse, when
the Amphictyones celebrated the eleventh Pythiad, but in our days there
are not even any ruins of it in existence. So the daughters of Prœtus
were brought back by Melampus to Lusi, and healed of their madness in
the temple of Artemis, and ever since the people of Clitor call Artemis
Hemerasia.
[28] Iliad, xv. 36, 37.
[29] Iliad, ii. 748-751.