LAKE AVERNUS (region)
- Kind of place
- Region
By the dark waters of the lake is a deep cave with a wide mouth, overhung with rock and sheltered by a gloomy grove; its deadly breath lets no bird pass over unharmed, so the Greeks call it Aornos. There the Sibyl sacrifices to Hecate and leads Aeneas down. Aeneid 6.236 Heracles built works about Lake Avernus, which is held sacred to Persephone; it lies between Misenum and Dicaearcheia near the hot waters, about five stades round, of great depth, its pure water dark blue. Diodorus 4.22
Described in the sources
Near Lake Avernus there formerly stood a town of the Cimmerians. Pliny, Nat. Hist. 3.9 ΒΆ7 Lake Avernus lies within the Lucrine Lake, between Baiae and Cumae, toward Cape Misenum. Strabo 5.4.5 Doves lead Aeneas over the sulphurous throat of Avernus to the tree bearing the golden bough. Aeneid 6.183 In the face of the Euboean crag of Cumae a vast cavern is hollowed out, with a hundred openings, from which come the Sibyl's answers. Aeneid 6.42 Helenus bids Aeneas go to Cumae's hill and Lake Avernus with its whispering grove, where the Sibyl sings oracles from beneath the hollow crag. Aeneid 3.374 part 2 Anchises tells Aeneas to come to him in Elysium through the deep abyss of dark Avernus, with the Sibyl leading him down after offerings of black cattle. Aeneid 5.719