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
The Death of the Gods merits of what turned out to be the first Symbolist novel in Russia: the profound knowledge of history and fine, subtle language. This, according to biographer Yuri Zobnin, distinguished it from other Russian historical novels, set in the tradition started by Nikolay Danilevsky. The novel tells the story of Roman Emperor Julian who during his reign (331–363) was trying to restore the cult of Olympian gods in Rome, resisting the upcoming Christianity. Christianity "in its highest manifestations is presented in the novel as a cult of an absolute virtue, unattainable on Earth which is in denial of all things Earthly,"