74/122 Acheron was the fabled river of the lower world. Virgil probably had in his mind the real _Acherusia palus_, a gloomy marsh near Naples. There was a volcanic lake near Cumae called _Avernus_, whose waters gave out sulphureous vapours. It was connected by tradition with the lower world. Orpheus, the mythical poet, so charmed the gods of the nether world by his harp-playing, that he was allowed to take back to the upper world his dead wife Eurydice. |