ACHERUSIAN HEADLAND (region)
- Kind of place
- Region
From the headland a hollow glen slopes landward to a cave of Hades overarched by wood and rocks; an icy breath from it forms a glistening rime that melts in the midday sun, and the sea and the quivering leaves never fall silent. The Acheron bursts through the headland into the sea, brought down by a hollow ravine. Argonautica 2 ¶51 The headland rises with steep cliffs facing the Bithynian sea, with smooth sea-washed rocks at its foot and wide-spreading plane trees above; the Argonauts put into its haven at dawn. Argonautica 2 ¶51 Lycus promises to raise a lofty temple to the sons of Tyndareus on the Acherusian height, to be seen by sailors far across the sea. Argonautica 2 ¶53
Described in the sources
Idmon the seer, killed by a boar by the reedy river, is buried with Lycus at the rites; his barrow, marked by a wild olive trunk, stands a little below the Acherusian headland. Argonautica 2 ¶55 +1 Lycus, lord of the land, and the Mariandyni welcome the Argonauts as the slayers of Amycus. Argonautica 2 ¶52 Phineus tells the Argonauts that in the land of the Mariandyni there is a downward path to the abode of Hades; the Acherusian headland rises there, and the Acheron cuts through it and pours out of a huge ravine. Argonautica 2 ¶25