Styxn.
/stɪks/, U.S. /stɪks/ Mythology.
A river of the lower world or Hades, over which the shades of the departed were ferried by Charon, and by which the gods swore their most solemn oaths.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > in classical mythology > lake or river of
Styx1390
Lethe1591
Phlegethona1704
1390 J. Gower Confessio Amantis II. 164 Be Segne and Stige he swor also, That ben the depe Pettes tuo Of helle the most principal.
1560 T. H. tr. Ovid Fable Narcissus sig. iiijv And when he was receyued, into that hyllye [read hellye] place be [read he] yeke wythin the ogly stype [read Styxe], behelde hys wretched face.
1589 W. Warner Albions Eng. (new ed.) vi. xxx. 134 By Styx I vowe..Venus would be Vulcans, and he knowes I truely sware.
1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus i. i. 88 Why sufferst thou thy sonnes vnburied yet, To houer on the dreadfull shore of stix . View more context for this quotation
1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. v. iv. §8. 613 There is not any forme of oath, whereby such articles of peace can bee held inuiolable, saue onely by the water of Styx, that is, by Necessitie.
1642 H. More Ψυχωδια Platonica sig. E6v That foul lore..and quill Steep'd in sad Styx, and fed with stinking gore.
1679 T. Trapham Disc. Health Jamaica 27 I have observed it matter of Fact where such care hath been omitted, more lives then else~where have flooded into Styx.
1797 E. Burke Lett. Peace Regic. France iii, in Wks. (1808) VIII. 280 This would be a never-failing source of true glory, if springing from just and right; but it is truly dreadful if it be an arm of Styx, which springs out of the profoundest depths of a poisoned soil.
1819 ‘R. Rabelais’ Abeillard & Heloisa 197 To pass o'er Bot'ny Bays dread styx.
1852 W. M. Thackeray Henry Esmond II. ix. 156 He told a falsehood as black as Styx.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1919; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1390