the roman myth of pluto and the river styx have you ever heard of a river that separates the
living from the dead well according to ancient roman mythology the river sticks existed as the
thin line between the world and the afterlife so while styx was the river of the underworld it only
makes sense for it to be connected to the ruler of the underworld pluto or hades as the world
once knew him in this video we're going to be tracing the history of the roman myth of pluto
and the river sticks to see how this site went on to be known as the river of hatred the story
starts off with pluto who was the son of titans cronus and rhea he became known as
hades because of his association with the world of the dead which was also called hades but in roman
mythology he's commonly referred to as pluto now before he was king of the underworld pluto
had always been the king of wealth ancient romans believed that pluto would dig down into the earth
to retrieve buried and hidden treasures which is how he became in contact with the underworld
now because he was the king of wealth pluto had a reputation for being greedy too no matter how much
he had he always seemed to want more this greed translated into his underworld kingdom as well
why well because he just couldn't stop increasing the number of people who died and came as
souls to his kingdom and at the same time he was reluctant to let anyone leave and this is where
the river styx comes in when he took the reign of the underworld pluto also became the ruler
of five rivers that surrounded hades these rivers were called sticks flagathon acharon
leith and kakitis with sticks becoming the point where everything converged
now when a person died their soul had to cross the sticks to be met with their ill fate but at
the same time crossing the sticks wasn't as easy as it sounded to cross the river and reach hades
one had to pay a fee to the ferryman named charon if they were able to pay the fee charon who is
often represented as a skull-like demon would carry them over to the underworld their souls
would spend eternity wandering around the sticks in search of a place to rest but never finding it
families would often bury their dead with a bunch of silver or gold coins because they believe
that was how their loved ones would be able to pay off sharon and their spirits would be able
to enter the underworld the river became known as the river of hate or the hateful river because of
its dark black color which was supposedly a result of the river being extremely poisonous
so now that we know what happens to the souls that don't enter the underworld what about the souls
that do manage to pay sharon off well for starters once you enter the underworld there's no going out
and to make sure of that pluto has assigned his faithful three-headed dog called cerberus who
guards the boundaries of the underworld making sure that not a single soul ever slips out
however to satisfy pluto's greed cerebus allowed just about everyone to reach the boundary of hades
to enter inside so what happened to these souls once they entered the underworld now the souls
that were pure were then sent back to earth they would be relocated to a new body and sent back to
start a new life unable to remember their previous lives to do this they had to drink from the river
leaf in order to lose their memories and start anew speaking of rivers the river atron also
known as the river of pain that flowed from the styx was also an important part of the process and
was believed to carry pain for mortals this river also carried the good souls from the underworld
that were sent back to earth after a thousand years to be born again as new living beings
now according to the greeks acheron is a river located in the epperous region of northwest
greece it flows into the lohanian sea in ammodia similar to roman mythology the greeks also believe
that the acharon directly flows into the sticks and is part of the five rivers surrounding hades
however people with evil souls would remain in the underworld forever never being able to
experience the process of rebirth which meant that they would be stuck in limbo forever
all of these souls appeared before a panel of three judges radimanthus minos and achis
who decided their fates the souls who were good went to the elysian fields the elasian fields
were also the place of residence for pluto and his wife the golden palace of hades was
located in these fields and it is from there that pluto looked over his empire he also held
court in the palace which was located in elysium beside the pool of leith and this entire place
also known as the city of hades was also home to all other gods and goddesses who resided in hades
but don't be fooled because not all parts of hades were as wonderful as the elijah fields the souls
that were eternally damned because of their bad deeds were given their fateful verdicts and were
sent down to the infernal regions called tartarus where their wicked spirits would be punished
forever sisyphus and tantalus are two examples of souls that were sentenced to be tormented for
eternity in the depths of the underworld the souls of mortals who had been both good and
evil on earth were sent to the espotal meadows in the underworld for unending toil and hardship
pluto also possessed a herd of immortal sable black cattle which roamed the asphadel fields
under the supervision of his supranatural herdsmen menonets as far as pluto goes the more people that
stayed in the underworld the happier and stronger he was in fact an extremely popular roman myth
says that pluto actually took proserpina the daughter of the goddess series to the underworld
because he fell in love with her as a result serris who was the goddess of food plants stopped
the earth from being fertile because of which people on earth started to die out of starvation
which is what ultimately forced pluto to strike a deal where he would keep proserpina for six months
and for the next six months she would go back to earth to be with her mother when prosper pino was
in the underworld the earth was cold and dark and as soon as she returned it went back to bright and
sunny and this is how romans believed that pluto influenced the change of seasons now according to
some people the river styx was more than just the gateway to the underworld it was also a river that
held tons of magical properties for those who knew how to evoke them for example it was believed that
the styx could make people immortal because of its connection to the underworld and the hereafter
these stories stem from the old tale of the warrior achilles who was dipped inside the sticks
as a child and as a result became invincible to any sort of harm the only part of his body that
was not able to get wet in the river was his heel which is where the term achilles heel comes from
where the heel refers to someone's weakness pretty cool right but while skeptics can pass all of that
is someone's extremely active imagination here's the catch the river sticks might actually exist
in the real world too the styx is based on a real stream and waterfall called the mabarini
also known as the black water in the peloponnese which contains a deadly bacteria which might
explain the reason why this river was believed to have been poisonous but this is not where the myth
of pluto and the styx ends why well because the legend still lives on in the universe
and if you're wondering how that is possible you just need to look up to the sky this happened when
the romans decided to name all the planets that they could see with their eyes after some their
most important gods and of course pluto was one of them once it was discovered pluto's moon is named
charon after this ferryman of the underworld the naming of pluto's other moons follows this same
basic scheme nyx is named after the greek goddess of darkness and knight and mother of charon
hydra is the nine-headed serpent which battled hercules cerebros is of course the many-headed
dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld in greek mythology and the last moon is named after
the styx himself a pretty fascinating tribute to the god of the underworld right well that's
a wrap for the roman myth of pluto and the river styx comment below if you believe there is some
truth to the whole story don't forget to like the video subscribe and we'll see you on the next one