In the preceding part, we had explored a most remarkable situation – attested and occurrent amidst both Hellenic and Hindu spheres – for the Goddess in relation to a certain Water of the Underworld; this (Blue-Black) pathway opening up at the behest (and, indeed, Spear) of Her Husband, the Sky Father (Hades & Shiva, respectively).

And, of course, this notion for the Spring (or Pool) as ‘Gateway to the Underworld’ should seem to harmonize quite nicely with the Indo-European Anatolian occurrences for the ‘(Divine) Roadway of the Earth’ amidst the Hittites and (at least in terms of writing) Luwians. In the case of the former, this being the understood meaning for the Sumerian-origin ideogram ᴰKASKAL.KUR found in Hittite employment (which, of course, means that that is *not* what the actual wording is … only the manner in which it was inscribed – using symbols originally developed by a non-IE cultural sphere); and viz. the latter, the Hieroglyphic Luwian ᴰᵉᵘˢVIA TERRA identified by the inveterate professor Hawkins as its likely ‘translation’ (or ‘correlate’) at the Südburg sacred pool in Hattusa and proximate to a relief-sculpture of what he identifies to be the by-then deceased Šuppiluliuma I, whom Hawkins suggests to have been rather pointedly placed there as a ‘protective ancestor’ and which would be quite logical in such proximity to the ‘Entrance to the Underworld’. 

Speaking of Luwians – we also might make mention of another ᴰKASKAL.KUR , this being found within the context of the Treaty between the Hittite king Muwattalli II and the much-commented-upon Alakšandu of Wiluša. Wilusa, of course, being Ilium (that is to say – ‘Troy’) , and ‘Alaksandu’ seemingly being the Greek name ‘Alexandros’ (i.e. ‘Protector of Man’) , with the rough dating for the Treaty being about 1280 BC. Now, just what an ostensibly Hellenic name is doing in charge of a theoretically Luwian(-ish) city in Western Anatolia is … another matter for another time. However, with the immediately preceding line (27)  to that of interest to us here (28) being that which attests the ‘Ap-Pa-Li-U-Na-Aš’ often identified as Apollo , it is not hard to see why the text has caught the imagination of many a scholar as potentially proving proximate to that most famous of Anatolian-Hellenic IE interactions … the Trojan War of Homer. 

One occasionally encounters commentary speaking of the ‘Kaskal.Kur’ (or Kaskalkur) included within this Treaty as a ‘deity’ – which, upon the surface, should look a bit of a difference from the notion for the term as pertaining to a structure or physical feature. Yet as we have seen viz. Cyane above, this does not necessarily (or, rather, ‘exclusively’) have to be the case. One possibility is that this designation, occurring as it does in amidst the enumeration as to the ‘witnessing’ Deities of Wilusa (i.e. the ‘Trojan’ side of the pact’s upholding) *may* pertain to the cave-ensconced spring which was identified in relation to the Lower City of Troy in 1997 – notwithstanding the somewhat incongruous characterization possibly ascribed to this spring via Bachvarova’s observance that “Homer alludes to the spot as the place where Trojan women were wont to wash their laundry (Il. 22.147–56), so apparently he is not aware of a possible earlier function.” [Such a place as a site for Cleansing, we most easily anticipate – c.f. detailing in the preceding part. But for such a mundane form of cleaning as that of Clothing? Even in view of Demeter having Her Dark Visage spoken of as a ‘Cloak’ (κάλυμμα / ‘kalumma’), with its removal demonstrably cognate as we had outlined above with Devi’s shedding of the ‘Kaal’ quality through ritual purificationary bath … this seems a bit of a stretch]

Personally, I would advance another prospect – *two* prospects, in fact. The first of which coming fairly directly from the Oath-Rite and its accompanying Invocation for Witnessing Divinities undertaken by Agamemnon at Iliad III 276-280 (and the general resonance between this Oath and the aforementioned Hittite Treaty also seemingly pertaining to the same city has also been noted by Bianconi). 

In the original Greek, it reads:

Ζεῦ πάτερ Ἴδηθεν μεδέων κύδιστε μέγιστε,
Ἠέλιός θ᾽, ὃς πάντ᾽ ἐφορᾷς καὶ πάντ᾽ ἐπακούεις,
καὶ ποταμοὶ καὶ γαῖα, καὶ οἳ ὑπένερθε καμόντας
ἀνθρώπους τίνυσθον ὅτις κ᾽ ἐπίορκον ὀμόσσῃ,
ὑμεῖς μάρτυροι ἔστε, φυλάσσετε δ᾽ ὅρκια πιστά: 

Which, per the Murray translation:

“Father Zeus, that rulest from Ida, most glorious, most great,
and Thou Sun [Helios], that beholdest all things and hearest all things,
and Ye Rivers and Thou Earth, and Ye that in the World Below
take vengeance on men that are done with life, whosoever hath sworn a false oath;
be Ye Witnesses, and Watch Over the Oaths of Faith.”

The ‘Rivers’ [Potamoi] mentioned are at least potentially those prominent rivers of the Trojan realm, the Scamander and Simois. However, as we might fairly point towards in a number of Vedic verses which should seem to resonate in their broader suite of invoked parties for the list encountered here, the prospect for “The Rivers” to in fact be intended in the *plural* rather than dual [something which … the Homeric Greek would seem to potentially support – more on this in a moment as applies the other element of this under our due consideration] may mean a far more general scope for the concept being thusly invoked. 

Yet our main attention is focused here upon ” καὶ οἳ […] τίνυσθον ” – which, as Seymour observes, *is* apparently a dual-case invocation … and Whom do we think we might encounter, as a Pairing, in the ‘Under’ or the ‘Below’ (Hupernerthe)? 

Why, Hades & Persephone, of course. 

So, my point is quite a simple one – namely, that the invocation for  ᴰKASKAL.KUR within the relevant Hittite Treaty with the lord of Wilusa, is quite plausibly not so much for a specific ‘Spring God’ or ‘-Goddess’ [as in, a ‘limited’ Genius Loci] : but, rather, for the rather … darkly expected Witness(es) of Oaths Who would be encountered therethrough. The situation at other points of pertinence (for instance, Iliad IX 454-457 & 569-571) – wherein we hear of ‘Zeus of the Underworld’ and ‘Dread Persephone’ ( Ζεύς τε καταχθόνιος καὶ ἐπαινὴ Περσεφόνεια ) / ‘Hades’ and ‘Dread Persephone’ ( Ἀΐδην καὶ ἐπαινὴν Περσεφόνειαν ) should serve to underscore this : per Leaf’s commentaries, we begin to encounter *The* Erinys within this context. Not, you understand, The Erinyes as in the more familiar Grouping or Trio of Avenger / Enforcer ‘Furies’ (famed as the Daughters of Persephone (and Zeus Cthonios ) , per the relevant Orphic Hymnal) . But rather, apparently, the Erinys – as a more ‘singular’ … ‘concept’, or perhaps we might suggest to be a certain Wrathful Form to the presiding Goddess (c.f., perhaps, XIX 86 –  ἠεροφοῖτις Ἐρινύς … the Erinys Who Walks In Darkness / Comes Unseen – Eerophoitis). (We might also, perhaps, make reference to Iliad XIX 258 – Leaf again notes the prospect for the relevant Oath Invocation, featuring Zeus, the Earth and the Sun, the Erinyes … for there to *potentially* be a ‘Dual Invocation’ then intended viz. They “that under earth take vengeance on men, whosoever hath sworn a false oath […]”, per the Murray translation. It all hinges upon how one takes “αἵ θ”. )

(Although as applies ‘Dual Invocations’ – it is worth noting the frequency for Demeter and Persephone to be hailed in such a manner as we had briefly mentioned in our previous installment. This may prove pertinent here  with reference to Subterranean Streams when one remembers the mentioning within Pausanias [I 38 1] for those apparent (partially) underground rivers of the Rheiti. Referred to by him as ‘sea water’ [‘ ὕδωρ θάλασσά ‘], these are also described in the literature as spring-supplied pools – which a) marked the border between Eleusis and Athens, that is to say a ‘liminal space’ which had to be traversed by the initiate; and b) *may* have been utilized for purificationary purposes – although I am a bit dubious about the source for that, as it may have conflated these with the *literal sea* for this purpose. In any case, Pausanias tells us that the fish therein are the exclusive preserve for the Priests of Demeter & Persephone, and makes a most interesting remark about how these water-courses ultimately link up to “θάλασσαν κοιλοτέραν” : rendered by Jones & Ormerod as “a sea of a lower level”, although given the actual meaning of the root, κοῖλος, as ‘hollow’, perhaps in the manner of a ‘cave’, you can see where my mind might go for this notion in its truth – not least given the ‘ἐμπίπτοντες’ (‘fall into, fall upon’) verb utilized in their course. In any case, the important point here is that ” λέγονται δὲ οἱ Ῥειτοὶ Κόρης ἱεροὶ καὶ Δήμητρος εἶναι” – the Rheiti are said to be ‘ἱεροὶ’, that is to say ‘hieroi’, ‘Sacred to’, divinely connected to, and under the attendant aegis of protection & attention of, Kore (i.e. Persephone – and here of the Dread description to the point that Her Name cannot be utilized, we can fairly presume) and Demeter. But, then, I repeat myself, don’t I.) 

The other salient prospect, of course, is that most famous of Waters duly invoked within the context for Oath-forging … the Styx (interestingly, the Mother by Zeus of Persephone, per Apollodorus’ Bibliotheka I 3 1 – ἐκ δὲ Στυγὸς Περσεφόνην ). She Whom Even The Gods Themselves Must Swear-By And Be Bound. 

As it happens, in various of the occurrences which we might point to [for example, 84-86 of the (Third) Homeric Hymnal to Apollo ; Iliad XV 36 ; Odyssey V 184-5 ; and various others … although with a bit of a counterpoint at Iliad XIV 271-4, wherein we hear of the Styx and the Earth … but alongside ἅλα μαρμαρέην – the ‘Shining Sea’, as it is prospectively translated as [Murray has ‘Shimmering Sea’] ) – the Styx is sworn on as part of a ‘Rule of Three’: the other Two being, of course, ‘Gaia’ and ‘Ouranos’ … that is to say, the Earth and (High) Heavens. The Indo-European Tri-Planar Cosmology is once again in-play … albeit in a slightly different formulation than one might otherwise have anticipated. 

In that well-known passage of Hesiod, for instance, the Triple Dominion of Hekate is asserted to be on Earth (‘Gaia’), in Heaven (‘Ouranos’), and the Sea (‘Thalassa’) [Theogony, 426 :  γαίῃ τε καὶ οὐρανῷ ἠδὲ θαλάσσῃ ] ; and we are, of course, familiar with the tripartite division of the universe to the rulership of Zeus (Heavens), Hades (Underworld), and Poseidon (Seas) occurrent in various Classical sources (Apollodorus (Bibliotheka – I 2 2) has Ouranos, Thalassa, and Haides …  οὐρανῷ […]  θαλάσσῃ […]  Ἅιδου for Zeus, Poseidon, and Pluto / Plouton ( Πλούτων ), respectively) . As well as, of course, both the prominent Vedic schema for the Earth, Mid-Atmosphere, and (High) Heaven; and the less-well-known seemingly similar Tri-Loka-lized subdivisions such as the Sindhu (‘River / Ocean’), Prithvi (‘Earth’), and Dyauh (‘Heaven’ – Div) encountered at, say, RV I 105-115 (as in, all of those Hymnals – evidently a favoured focal for the Rsi Kutsa Angirasa) as a closer – which, interestingly, also correlates these with Varuna, Mitra, and Aditi (and c.f. also RV X 63 2 – wherein we have Aditi as Heaven, alongside the Waters (Adbhyas – Ap) and Prithvi (Earth) as the Mother(s) of the Gods).

A similar-yet-not-quite-exactly formulation is also to be encountered at RV I 139 11 – wherein one hears of Gods Eleven (usually that would mean (The) Rudra(s)) Who Dwell (or Stand) in Heaven (Div), upon Earth (Prithvi), and also, seemingly, within the Waters (apsukṣito – although this is potentially interprable in other fashions … Griffith, Jamison/Brereton, and Manasataramgini go with ‘Water(s)’, Horace Hayman Wilson (following Sayana, it would appear) goes with “Mid-Air” – which may, in fact, be a little less outlandish than it might first appear in light of the commentary of Madhva upon Chandogya Upanishad II 4 2, wherein one encounters the notion of ‘apsu’ being alternatively constructed *not* as ‘Apas’ (i.e. ‘Water(s)’) in locative plural but rather as ‘(Ap-) Water-Producer (-Su)’ : and therefore, assumedly, for our RV context, ‘Clouds’). 

Yet where does the Mighty Styx (She Who Fought alongside Zeus in the Titanomachy, per Apollodorus (Bibliotheka I 2 6) ) ‘fit in’ to this triple-fold rubric? Well, it’s … complex. And not entirely our purpose nor purport to get into in any great depth of detail herein. Suffice to say that once the comparative Indo-European cosmological schema is deployed, several (not-necessarily-mutually-exclusive) answers may reveal themselves. The Underworld presents one immediately obvious prospect – yet our attention is also drawn to the Sea. The latter suggests itself via the direct side-by-side comparison for the Hellenic  ‘Earth’, ‘Heavens’, and ‘Styx’ triplicate oath-formulations considered alongside  the Prithvi, Div / Dyauh, and Sindhu / Apas (‘River / Ocean’ / ‘Waters’) Vedic schema – whereby it becomes apparent that there is a certain aqueous ‘gap’ to be filled between Ouranos and Gaia.

Except when, as per Iliad XIV 271-4 as noted above, the Sea is *also* already to be mentioned alongside the Earth – thus leaving ‘Heaven’ as the seeming logical ‘gap’ within the structure … unless, of course, one chooses to interpret the  μαρμαρέην encountered therein in light of its PIE *Mer origination (c.f. Sanskrit Marici – or, for that matter, English ‘Morning’ … and, interestingly enough, the ‘Myrkr’ situation in Old Norse, going in a somewhat different direction – Pokorny has PIE *mer-2 as the effective root for all of the aforementioned; we would also make mention for that observed complex viz. PIE *Mer and … well, Death, Disappearance, as well as Sea; and the Liminal, viz. Marya / Maryada, Germanic ‘Mark’ (as in ‘Denmark’), Margin, etc.) as therefore pertaining to the most archaic ‘Sky as (also) Sea’ Indo-European cosmological standard. But again, I digress. 

The third prospect should prove to be the notion for the Styx not so much as one of the ‘Big Three’ Planes / Lokas (whether the Underworld, Ocean, or even Heaven – per the major Hellenic schema) … but rather as a Fourth element. And there is some potential support for this when we consider the situation in Aitareya Brahmana I 24-25, wherein the ‘House of Varuna’ is spoken of as what the Gods are to Swear Upon (in circumstances which are – as we have sought to show elsewhere – effectively functionally correlate with those immediately preceding the Division of the Realms in the Hellenic ) in the former Brahmana … and then in the immediately following, one encounters the labelling of Varuna as a ‘fourth component’ alongside the other Three for the TriKanda (‘Three-Arrow’) of Rudra – with these Three effectively correlate with the Three Worlds, for reasons we have elaborated upon elsewhere. 

There are two (again, not-mutually-exclusive) ways in which this can be taken. Both the Styx as ‘liminal’ space *between* various Planes (i.e. ‘within Cosmos’, and as an effective artery via which one might make one’s way thereto – c.f. the situation of the Rasātala-linking Vitasta River of Kashmir (this being a Form of Gauri / Sati, the Wife of Shiva, as noted in the previous installment) , and its apparent correlate of a Watery Roadway [viz. that ” *viam tellus* in Tartara” through the base of the Spring of Kyane which we hear of in Ovid (Metamorphoses, V 423-4); and, of course, the Hittite ᴰKASKAL.KUR / Hieroglyphic Luwian ᴰᵉᵘˢVIA TERRA ] from the Uppland (and/or) Realm of the Living, upon this Earth, down into the Underworld (a rather literal rendition for Rasatala, there, too) … as well as that most famous notion of the necessity for crossing such a River upon the ferry of Charon in order to *enter* the Underworld, not least in Metempsychotic terms) – but *also* as a Border not so much ‘between’ the Planes as *around* Them All. Within which lies (or, rather, *beyond* which lies) the supernal, the transcendent, and ultimate wellspring as to Cosmic Law. Hence why one swears such Oaths thereupon, assumedly. 

In either case, the circumstance for the River, ‘Roadway’, or other such designation for the conduit is just exactly that: *a conduit*. And in this it quite resonates with that *other* major Indo-European vector for the (Divinely Witnessed) Hallowing of Oaths – the (Altar) Flame. Which presents, as everybody knows, a shining path through which both offerings ought be made so as to reach the Gods … as well as the ‘portal’ via which Divinity may arrive and be embodied down here amongst us in the course of Rites. The mechanism for cremation might also be mentioned here, perhaps – as it certainly has *some* resonance with the notion of (a soul’s) getting to the Afterworld.

And whilst we might perhaps most prominently associate the Swearing of Binding Vows Witnessed By Fire with Hindu understandings (the Seven Steps / SaptaPadi with the accompanying Promises & ‘Windings’ / ‘Entwinings’ (‘Phere’) of Thread which take place around the Living Fire at the heart(h) for the Marriage Rite, for instance) – we are also in possession of rather famous attestation within the Hellenic sphere for even the Gods Themselves swearing a most foundational and serious Oath upon such, with the Altar in question becoming immortalized amidst the stars as the constellation of Ara (to use its Latin name) and forming the template for, as (Pseudo-)Eratosthenes phrases it : “Men [to] also bring an altar to their banquets, and offer sacrifice on it when they have decided to swear an agreement with one another; they touch it with their right hand, regarding this as a guarantee of their good faith” [Catasterismi XXXIX, Condos translation]. It is therefore, we may state, ‘foundational’ in two senses – both for the subsequent re-enactment by mortal men of the Hallowing in question, as well as for the ensuing Divine Realm of Order : the circumstance of Zeus et co swearing Their Covenant thereat being the outset for the campaign against Kronos [(Pseudo-)Eratosthenes, ibid.] / the Titans [(Pseudo-)Hyginus, II 39], that incandescent emanation of Divine Law, the Thunderbolt (delivered from beyond / within the Waters, per RV VIII 100 9) being (per the Vatican Fragment appending this section for the Catasterismi) found within.

Tellingly, (Pseudo-)Hyginus also emphasizes the *Southern* situation for this ‘Altar’ (“XXXIII. ARA prope antarcticum circulum tangens  inter Hostiae caput et Scorpionis caudam extremam collocatur […]” – “The Altar, almost which touches the Antarctic Circle, is located between the head of the Victim and the end of the Scorpion’s tail.” , per the Condos translation for De Astronomica III 38); the South being that Direction as to Yama (‘DharmaRaja’), the Realm of the (Ancestral) Dead, and also, it should appear, of Righteousness (c.f. the double-meaning of Dakṣiṇa – ‘Right(eous)’, Right (hand direction); specific Righteous Conduct *toward* the sacrificer, and with the Vedic rite oriented toward the direction of the Rising Sun (i.e. East), therefore to the right hand of the sacrificer should be the South). We also might make (brief) mention for a most intriguing parallel derivation in evidence across multiple Indo-European languages / religious spheres for specific terms for ‘Darkness’ and for ‘Rulership’ – Rajani (रजनि) and Rājan (राजन्) in Sanskrit, for instance. These are from *regʷos- and *reĝ-¹ respectively, per Pokorny / *h₁regw- and *h₃reǵ- , respectively, as cited in Kroonen. The former of which also being where we get ‘Erebus’ [ Ἔρεβος ] from, as it should happen. But I digress. 

To return to the Olympian situation of the Altar-Flame and Divine Oath-Forging – this Hellenic occurrence correlates strongly for the aforementioned Hindu mythic / ritual understanding at Aitareya Brahmana I 24-25 that we had briefly mentioned above. In that instance, the Titanic antagonists equate to the A’Suras, the Goddess Victory (Nike) to the “Goddesses of Victory” (Ait. Br. I 24 1, Haug translation – he has ‘Jitayaḥ’ for ‘Victory’), the Thunderbolt of Zeus and the (likewise ‘Vajra’ correlate) TriKanda [‘Three-Arrow’] of Rudra (a ‘Lord of Wealth’, He – viz. ‘Pashupati’, and perhaps ref. ‘Pluto’ / ‘Plouton’, ‘Dis Pater’), etc. and  featuring the ‘House of Varuna’ (Water) in evident correlation with the role for the Styx in the Oaths of the Divine.

Haug’s footnoting for the Aitareya Brahmana section aforementioned clarifies the actual (human-performed, sidereal-emulation for the original Divine Rite) ritual step as featuring “All the seven Hotars then put their hands in the mandantî, a copper vessel, whiuch is filled with water. This latter ceremony, only performed by the Hotars, is regarded as teh symbolical deposition of the priests’ own bodies in the “house of Varuṇa,” which is only a poetical expression for the copper vessel filled with water.” We are reminded fair-instantly for the detailing within Lycophron’s ‘Alexandra’, again situated within the broader context of the immediate-prior preparations for the Campaign against the “Giants and Titans” [per the Mair translation at I 709 – more fully and in context, “μέλλων Γίγαντας κἀπὶ Τιτῆνας περᾶν:”] – to quote at grander length: “and the lake Aornus rounded with a noose and the waters of Cocytus wild and dark, stream of black Styx, where Termieus made the seat of oath-swearing for the immortals, drawing the water in golden basins for libation, when He was about to go against the Giants and Titans […]” (I 704-9, Mair translation) / “and lake Aornos encircled by a noose, and the river of Kokytos violently roaring in darkness, tributary of black Styx, where Termieus established a place of oaths for the immortals, drawing a libation-stream in gold vessels,[…]” per the same lines in the more recent Hornblower translation. Lycophron is, of course, detailing the travails of Odysseus – and so, at this point, we hear that he “shall offer up a gift to Daeira and Her Consort, fastening his helmet to the head of a pillar” (I 710-11, Mair translation) : Persephone and Hades, respectively (Termieus, in case you were wondering, being a somewhat obscure Zeus epithet that we do not intend to delve into herein for the moment). 

In other – much shorter – words … both the Hellenic & Hindu recountings feature a version of the narrative wherein the Covenant of the Gods sworn prior to the great conflict for dominion of the worlds , is to be undertaken with a shining vessel bearing the Liminal Waters.

Yet how does this pertain to the Goddess? 

Well, in part, via this suite of concordant elements opening up a rather novel possibility for the detailing attested at Theogony 397 – that being, as Evelyn-White puts it : “Deathless Styx came first to Olympus with Her Children […]” at the outset of the Campaign, as part of the rationale given for why Zeus “appointed Her to be the Great Oath of the Gods” (ibid., 400). Our (Hindu) version of the aforesaid Oath is known as ‘Tanūnapātra’ – it refers rather directly to the ‘extension’ (Tanu) of ‘kinship’ or ‘common descent’ (Napat) – i.e. the Gods becoming ‘as kin’ as the strongest possible alliance. What if, what we observe through Ait. Br. I 24 viz. the ‘pooling’ within said ‘House of Varuna’ [i.e. the Water] which makes Them (as) Kin might also have been expressed as the *Gods* being (or ‘becoming as’) the ‘Children of the Styx’ ? Certainly, the establishment of common bonds via a single Mother presents a rather literal style of ‘Brotherhood’. And therefore, perhaps, Swearing upon the Styx is so serious for the Hellenic Theoi for much the same reason that swearing upon one’s Mother is amidst us humans.

And, speaking to this notion for the Styx as Mother Goddess – as noted above, Apollodorus in his Bibliotheca (I 3 1) produces a most interesting attestation for the Mother (by Zeus) of Persephone being the Styx (“ἐκ δὲ Στυγὸς Περσεφόνην”); something which he doesn’t seem to view as presenting any inherent contradiction to everywhere *else* in his work having Persephone’s apparent Mother be Demeter in-line with the more usual tellings. There is an obvious answer for why this might be so. And, indeed, we have already established that there exist an array of further linkages for Demeter (Erinys / Melaina) and the Styx – Per  Photius’ Bibliotheca (190) Ptolemy Chennus asserts that the Styx flowing in Arcadia has its black colouration  (‘μέλαν’ – ‘Melan’) as the result of Demeter in a state of χαλεπήνασα , which effectively works out as ‘Harsh’, ‘Savage’, ‘Fierce’, ‘Dangerous’, ‘Severe’, ‘Provoked / Incited’, and so forth [ref. ‘Kruram’, ‘Ugra’, etc. in our Sanskrit / Hindu utilization for the same style of Aspect].

The Hartley translation for the Ptolemy Chennus section aforementioned makes for interesting reading in this light – “enraged [Demeter] changed Herself into a Horse and coming upon the spring and seeing Her reflected form, She hated the sight and turned the water black.” This, Hartley notes, has “Ptolemy [create] a pun by having Demeter hating  (ἐστύγησε from the verb στῦγέω), Her Own transformed appearance that is reflected in the Styx, which means ‘the hateful’. One might just as well, I think, take it at ‘face value’ – Demeter Erinys / Demeter Melaina having an appearance reflected in the Styx not merely due to the obvious dimension of water reflecting visual light … but because Her Appearance, and the [Goddess of the] Dread River of the Underworld’s Aspect, are indeed quite coterminous. That is to say – Demeter the Furious ‘Seeing Herself’ in the Styx might be readable rather literally indeed. Given the strong saliency for Demeter Erinys in relation to Divine Order [Rta, Orlog, Themis, &c.] and the Upholding of same … this Furious Form for the Goddess Who carries *out* such ‘Active Enforcement’ measures should surely make it quite logical for the most dire and serious of Oaths to be Sworn upon Her. 

We intend to say rather more upon this Mat(t)er in due course (not least in terms of a potential ‘dark’ parallel to the more overtly ‘luminous’ Divine Conduiting of Flame); however, for now I think we have probably set forth sufficient foundation, and can move forward in good conscience herefrom. 

We had earlier sought to demonstrate the strong resonance between the Black, Terrific Aspect to the Goddess and the River(s) of the Underworld. We have also further shown the triangulation for Both with the Divine Law – and furthered our exploration for the Dark(ened) Waters as lokaal for not only ‘transformation’ but also ‘transition’ … and therefore, an eminently apt vector for our central offering unto Her.

Thus it is upon the Divine Roadway of the Gods. 

Jai Mata Di.