Phlegethon- Greek LocationLocation · Landmark

The Burning River

Phlegethon — from phlegethō, to blaze — is the river of fire in the underworld. Its fuller name, Pyriphlegethon, means "fire-blazing." In the Odyssey, Circe tells Odysseus how to reach the dead: sail to the edge of the world, where the sun never shines, and find where Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus, the river of lamentation, pour into the Acheron. There, at that grim confluence, he must dig a trench, fill it with blood, and summon the shades.

Plato maps a more elaborate underworld in the Phaedo, one governed by four great rivers that flow from the cosmic chasm of Tartarus. Phlegethon is the one that burns. It emerges from deep within the earth, winds upward through the underworld, and reaches a vast boiling lake of fire and mud. Unlike the Acheron or the Cocytus, whose waters are cold and mournful, Phlegethon is alive with flame.

River of Punishment

In Plato's telling, the burning river punishes as much as it burns. Souls condemned for acts of violence — particularly those who murdered family members — are cast into Phlegethon's current and swept through Tartarus. When the river carries them past the Acherusian Lake, nearest to where their victims wait, the murderers must cry out for forgiveness. If their victims relent, the souls are released from the fiery waters; if not, they are carried around again, endlessly circling through the flames.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Phlegethon encircles the fortress of Tartarus itself. The fortress walls rise three times as high as any man can see, and its gate is framed in columns of solid adamant that no god could force. Phlegethon's torrents of flame roar through the channel below, rolling burning rocks along the riverbed — a moat of fire no condemned soul can cross. Atop the gate, Tisiphone keeps watch with her whip.