The words will certainly admit of this construction; but the context directs that the great oath be connected with the Stygian water. The employment of Iris on the mission is still a remarkable coincidence with the diluvian covenant.
[225] The sacred river-head.] That is, the ocean; which probably received this title from the Nile, a river highly venerated, being of old called the Oceanus. Styx is said to be a horn, or branch of the ocean, from the ancient idea that all rivers sprang from it: Homer Il. 21:
Therefore not kingly Acheloius,
Nor yet the strength of ocean’s vast profound:
Although from him all rivers and all seas,
All fountains and all wells proceed, can boast
Comparison with Jove.
Cowper.
The rivers of Earth and Orcus were believed to communicate; thus Virgil, Æn. vi. 658, of the Elysian fields:
In fragrant laurel groves, where Po’s vast flood