f the many go when they are dead, and after waiting an
appointed time, which is to some a longer and to some a shorter time,
they are sent back to be born again as animals. The third river passes
out between the two, and near the place of outlet pours into a vast
region of fire, and forms a lake larger than the Mediterranean Sea,
boiling with water and mud; and proceeding muddy and turbid, and winding
about the earth, comes, among other places, to the extremities of the
Acherusian Lake, but mingles not with the waters of the lake, and after
making many coils about the earth plunges into Tartarus at a deeper
level. This is that Pyriphlegethon, as the stream is called, which
throws up jets of fire in different parts of the earth. The fourth river
goes out on the opposite side, and falls first of all into a wild and
savage region, which is all of a dark-blue colour, like lapis lazuli;
and this is that river which is called the Stygian river, and falls into
and forms the Lake Styx, and after falling into the lake and receiving
strange powers in the waters, passes under the earth, winding round
in the opposite direction, and comes near the Acherusian lake from the
opposite side to Pyriphlegethon. And the water of this river too mingles
with no other, but flows round in a circle and falls into Tartarus over
against Pyriphlegethon; and the name of the river, as the poets say, is
Cocytus.

Such is the nature of the other world; and when the dead arrive at the
place to which the genius of each severally guides them, first of all,
they have sentence passed upon them, as they have lived well and piously
or not. And those who appear to have lived neither well nor ill, go to
the river Acheron, and embarking in any vessels which they may find, are
carried in them to the lake, and there they dwell and are purified of
their evil deeds, and having suffered the penalty of the wrongs which
they have done to others, they are absolved, and receive the rewards of
their good deeds, each of them according to his deserts. But those who
appear to be incurable by reason of the greatness of their crimes--who
have committed many and terrible deeds of sacrilege, murders foul and
violent, or the like--such are hurled into Tartarus which is their
suitable destiny, and they never come out. Those again who have
committed crimes, which, although great, are not irremediable--who in
a moment of anger, for example, have done violence to a father or a
mother