Acheron Cocytus and Phlegethon both flowed. The Roman poet Virgil called it the principal river of Tartarus, from which the Styx and Cocytus both sprang. The newly dead would be ferried across the Acheron by Charon in order to enter the Underworld. The Suda describes the river as "a place of healing, not a place of punishment, cleansing and purging the sins of humans". According to later traditions, Acheron had been a son of Helios and either Gaia or Demeter, who had been turned into the Underworld river bearing his name after he refreshed the Titans with drink during their contest
Tartarus provides other sources for the shortened form of this verb, including Acusilaus (5th century BC), Joannes Laurentius Lydus (4th century AD) and the Scholiast on Aeschylus' "Eumenides", who cites Pindar relating how the earth tried to "tartaro" "cast down" Apollo after he overcame the Python. In classical texts, the longer form "kata-tartaroo" is often related to the throwing of the Titans down to Tartarus. The ESV is one of several English versions that gives the Greek reading Tartarus as a footnote: Adam Clarke reasoned that Peter's use of language relating to the Titans was an indication that the ancient Greeks