35

Appendix 35

There are a few dim and blurred signals to be received from the regions of Styx flowing, as we have heard, in sight of the celestial South Pole. Photius [1] tells us about Hyllos, son of Herakles, who had a small horn growing out of the left side of his head, and how Epopeus [2] of Sikyon broke off this horn, after having killed Hyllos in a duel, fetched Styx water with this horn, and became king of the country. Why should he have procured this much dreaded water, if it did not enable him to become king?

Allegedly “late” are the legends claiming that Thetis made the child Achilles invulnerable by means of Styx water — his heel excepted, as we know. On the other hand it was fabled that Alexander was killed with water from the Styx, as Pausanias, who remained skeptical, reported (see also p. 201, n. 8). Thus, both of them were brought in touch with Stygian water, the one almost at the right moment, but only almost, and the other at a completely wrong time, far away from that unknown day in the year, where this fluid was supposed to make the drinker immortal, whereas it brought inevitable death on every other day.

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1. Bibliothèque, ed. R. Henry (1962), vol. 2, p. 56.

2. M. Riemschneider (Augengott und Heilige Hochzeit [1953], p. 59) interprets the name: “der Hinaufschauer, der Hinaufwurfler.”