Livy mentions Cacus as a shepherd, and a person of great strength, and violence. [[681]]Pastor, accola ejus loci, Cacus, ferox viribus. He is mentioned also by Plutarch, who styles him Caccus, Κακκος. [[682]]Τον μεν γαρ Ἡφαιστου παιδα Ρωμαιοι Κακκον ἱστορουσι πυρ και φλογας αφιεναι δια του στοματος εξω ῥεουσας. As there were both priests, and priestesses, in temples of this sort, persons styled both Lami, and Lamiæ; so we read both of a Cacus, and a Caca. The latter was supposed to have been a Goddess, who was made a Deity for having betrayed her brother to Hercules. [[683]]Colitur et Caca, quæ Herculi fecit indicium boum; divinitatem consecuta, quia perdidit fratrem. In short, under the characters of Caca, and Cacus, we have a history of Cacusian priests, who seem to have been a set of people devoted to rapine and murder.
What we express Cocytus, and suppose to have been merely a river, was originally a temple in Egypt called Co-Cutus: for rivers were generally denominated from some town, or temple, near which they ran. Co-Cutus means the Cuthite temple, the house of Cuth. It was certainly a place of inquisition, where great cruelties were exercised. Hence the river, which was denominated from it, was esteemed a river of hell; and was supposed to have continual cries, and lamentations resounding upon its waters.
[[684]]Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on its banks.
Milton supposes the river to have been named from the Greek word κωκυτος: but the reverse is the truth. From the baleful river and temple Co-cutus came the Greek terms κωκυτος, and κωκυω. Acheron, another infernal river, was properly a temple of Achor, the θεος απομυιος of Egypt, Palestine, and Cyrene. It was a temple of the Sun, called Achor-On: and it gave name to the river, on whose banks it stood. Hence like Cocutus it was looked upon as a melancholy stream, and by the Poet Theocritus styled [[685]]Αχεροντα πολυστονον, the river of lamentations. Aristophanes speaks of an eminence of this name, and calls it [[686]]Αχεροντιος σκοπελος ἁιματοσταγης, the rock of Acheron, dropping blood.