Five Rivers

Styx was the river of unbreakable oath, by which the gods swore. It was also the river of hate.

Researching for worldbuilding I came across that interesting fact.

I was aware that Styx is the river which the ferryman Charon carried you over to get to the underworld, but the idea that it encompassed both the concept of an unbreakable oath and hate strikes something in me. Is there a relationship between hate and an unbreakable oath? I give my word, swear never to stray from it, and that intention, that promise, eventually breeds hate. Does having an unbreakable word breed hate towards you? Or does it breed hate within you?

For something to be unbreakable, doesn’t that mean that everything it hits must break before it? Except for something like water, which is infinitely breakable and infinitely capable of reforming itself. Ask any Tai Chi master. That is, if we’re talking on the macro scale.  At  a micro level, water is as breakable as anything else. Ask any chemist. When those molecular bonds are broken, the reaction yields a flash of intense energy. Fire. There’s a river for fire too. It’s called Phlegethon. I admit, Phlegethon feels more like a river of snot to me than a river of fire, but who am I to criticize? 

Which leads me to the next thought. Does that mean every time I blow my nose in the underworld, I set my tissue ablaze with boogers of fire? That would bring me straight to the river of woe – Cocytus. 

Two thoughts claw their way out of my mind when I see Cocytus:

1. That looks a lot like Platypus. It’s the whole "ty" letter combination. And being the laughing stock of the natural world, the platypus understands woe.

2. Naming a river Cocytus is pretty cocky, you have to admit. It’s one letter missing from "cock" (which as we all know, is a very manly rooster), and one letter away from "tush" (which is the part you put on a chair).

So I think I’m placing my tush carefully on a comfy chair, but instead my back end meets the beak of an angry (but very manly) rooster, and I scream, "ouch!!!" and encompassed in that sound is all of the lamentation of my soul, poured out in that one sound, rushing along the riverbed of my expectations – betrayed, and the promise of my future, flowing downhill to the sea.

There’s a simple equation for this: 1 Cock + 1 Tush = A Whole River of Lamentation, ie: Acheron.

This is even more appropriate, because the river Acheron holds in it a whole sea of "ache".

I think though, for my current project, the river Lethe (forgetting) will suit me best.

(Note: River Information courtesy of: http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/mythology/1deities/underworld/rivers.htm)