styxes

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Styx

[stiks]

–noun Classical Mythology.

a river in the underworld, over which the souls of the dead were ferried by Charon, and by which the gods swore their most solemn oaths.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Cultural Dictionary

Styx [(stiks)]

In classical mythology, one of the rivers of Hades, across which Charon ferried the souls of the dead. The gods occasionally swore by the river Styx. When they did so, their oath was unbreakable.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Styx

1390, the Gk. river of the Underworld, cognate with Gk. stygos "hatred," stygnos "gloomy." Oaths sworn by it were supremely binding and even the gods feared to break them. The adj. is Stygian.

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