Myth. In 4 Stige, 6 Styxe, 6–7 Stix. [L. Styx, a. Gr. Στύξ (Στυγ-) related to στυγεῖν to hate, στυγνός hateful, gloomy.] A river of the lower world or Hades, over which the shades of the departed were ferried by Charon, and by which the gods swore their most solemn oaths.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 164. Be Segne and Stige he swor also, That ben the depe Pettes tuo Of helle the most principal.
1560. T. H., trans. Ovid’s Fable Narcissus, A iiij b. And when he was receyued, into that hyllye [read hellye] place be [read he] yeke wythin the ogly stype [read Styxe], behelde hys wretched face.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 88. Why suffer’st thou thy Sonnes vnburied yet, To houer on the dreadfull shore of Stix?
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., VI. xxx. 150. By Styx I vowe … Venus would be Vulcans, and he knowes I truely sware.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, V. iv. § 8. 613. There is not any forme of oath, whereby such articles of peace can bee held inuiolable, saue onely by the water of Styx, that is, by Necessitie.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. i. i. 5. That foul lore … and quill Steep’d in sad Styx, and fed with stinking gore.
1679. Trapham, Disc. Health Jamaica, 27. I have observed it matter of Fact where such care hath been omitted, more lives then elsewhere have flooded into Styx.
1797. Burke, Lett. Regicide Peace, ii. Wks. (1808), VIII. 280. This would be a never-failing source of true glory, if springing from just and right; but it is truly dreadful if it be an arm of Styx, which springs out of the profoundest depths of a poisoned soil.
1819. ‘R. Rabelais,’ Abeillard & Heloisa, 197. To pass o’er Bot’ny Bavs dread styx.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. ix. He told a falsehood as black as Styx.
