Cocytus, 2021

The River Cocytus (or Kokytos) is also called the River of Wailing, a river of cries and lamentation. For the souls that Charon refused to ferry over because they had not received a proper burial, the river bank of Cocytus would be their wandering grounds.

According to Homer’s Odyssey, Cocytus, whose name meant “River of Lamentation,” is one of the rivers that flow into Acheron; it starts out as a branch of River Number Five, the Styx. In his Geography, Pausanias theorises that Homer saw a bunch of ugly rivers in Thesprotia, including Cocytus, “a most unlovely stream,” and thought the area was so miserable he named the rivers of Hades after them.