Acheron is the first of the rivers of Hell, fed by the tears of a weeping colossus; its ferryman is Charon.
| Type | River |
| Location | Hell |
| Chronicle | CFA |
| Ferryman | Charon |
| Spanish entry | Aqueronte |
Description
From the colossus’s tears spring the rivers Acheron, Styx and Phlegethon; below them the Cocytus condenses. The Lethe, river of Forgetting, lies farther away; there the repentant dead wash away their guilt and transcend the pit. Its bank serves as a waiting room.
History
- Virgil, asked for his services, answered that they had already been taken by someone of the highest rank — he was guiding “at the call of the great women” — but granted a conversation on the bank of the Acheron, if they hurried.
- While the group fought, the tarrasque carrier vanished and the Stone began to be taken to Terra: Charon, ferryman of the Acheron and Rider of Death, carried it off, sinking through a pit three meters wide.
- Brunetto Latini, Dante’s teacher, emerged from among the shades, with the line “Solitude has a price.”