The volcanic crater of Avernus belongs to Pluto's domain, its poisonous vapors and birdless skies marking the boundary where his underworld kingdom breaches the surface of the living world.
The Roman Underworld encompasses Avernus as its volcanic gateway near Cumae and Elysium as the sunlit fields where the blessed dead dwell in eternal spring.
Aeneas descended through Avernus to the underworld on the Sibyl's guidance, carrying the golden bough to gain passage past Charon and Cerberus and reach his father Anchises in Elysium.
The Sibyl who guided Aeneas through Avernus kept her cave at Cumae, binding the Greek colony and the volcanic lake into a single sacred threshold between the living and the dead.
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