h into the generations of
animals. 142. A third river issues midway between these, and, near its
source, falls into a vast region, burning with abundance of fire, and
forms a lake larger than our sea, boiling with water and mud. From hence
it proceeds in a circle, turbulent and muddy, and, folding itself round
it, reaches both other places and the extremity of the Acherusian lake,
but does not mingle with its water; but, folding itself oftentimes
beneath the earth, it discharges itself into the lower parts of
Tartarus. And this is the river which they call Pyriphlegethon, whose
burning streams emit dissevered fragments in whatever part of the earth
they happen to be. Opposite to this, again, the fourth river first falls
into a place dreadful and savage, as it is said, having its whole color
like cyanus:[44] this they call Stygian, and the lake which the river
forms by its discharge, Styx. This river, having fallen in here, and
received awful power in the water, sinking beneath the earth, proceeds,
folding itself round, in an opposite course to Pyriphlegethon, and meets
it in the Acherusian lake from, a contrary direction. Neither does the
water of this river mingle with any other; but it, too, having gone
round in a circle, discharges itself into Tartarus, opposite to
Pyriphlegethon. Its name, as the poets say, is Cocytus."

143. "These things being thus constituted, when the dead arrive at the
place to which their demon leads them severally, first of all they are
judged, as well those who have lived well and piously, as those who have
not. And those who appear to have passed a middle kind of life,
proceeding to Acheron, and embarking in the vessels they have, on these
arrive at the lake, and there dwell; and when they are purified, and
have suffered punishment for the iniquities they may have committed,
they are set free, and each receives the reward of his good deeds,
according to his deserts. But those who appear to be incurable, through
the magnitude of their offenses, either from having committed many and
great sacrileges, or many unjust and lawless murders, or other similar
crimes, these a suitable destiny hurls into Tartarus, whence they never
come forth. 144. But those who appear to have been guilty of curable yet
great offenses--such as those who, through anger, have committed any
violence against father or mother, and have lived the remainder of their
life in a state of penitence, or they who have become homici