haste of sudden alarm, and meets their advance with its 35
drawn blade; and did not his companion warn him, of
her own knowledge, that they are but thin unbodied
spirits flitting in a hollow mask of substance, he would
be rushing among them, and slashing shadows asunder
with the steel’s unavailing blows.
Hence runs the road that leads to the waters of Tartarean
Acheron, whose gulfy stream, churning mud in its
monstrous depths, is all aglow, and disgorges into Cocytus 5
the whole of its sand. These waters are guarded by a