Acheron

"This is the River of Lost Souls. Touch it and it will make you lost. Reducing you to a mindless, tormented husk. So please, keep all arms and hand inside the boat."

- Hades to Hook

The Acheron River, also known as the River of Lost Souls, is an Underworld location on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the twelfth episode of the fifth season.

The Acheron is based on the river of the same name from Greek Mythology, and the river Styx from the Disney film "Hercules". It also shares aspects with the rivers Lethe and Styx from Greek Mythology.

Trivia

 * -|On-Screen Notes=

On-Screen Notes

 * The River of Lost Souls shares aspects with three rivers from Greek Mythology:
 * Lethe, the river of unmindfulness. All those who drank from the river experienced complete forgetfulness.
 * Styx, which some souls tried to swim across to reach the Underworld.
 * Acheron, the river of woe, where the shades are ferried across by Charon.
 * However, the rivers Styx and Lethe are separate from the river Acheron on Once Upon a Time.
 * The inscription on the gates that Hades takes Hook through, reads "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". This is a reference to Inferno, the first part of Dante Alighieri's epic poem Divine Comedy. In the poem, Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription ending with the famous phrase.
 * -|Props Notes=

Props Notes

 * The platform over the Acheron is shaped like a pentacle: A pentagram with a circle around it. While often associated with evil and the devil, the pentacle and the pentagram are also seen as positive and spiritual images. These symbols have been used by major world religions, and can be found in ancient scriptures of Christianity and even Judaism. In earlier times, Christians have widely used the pentagram as a personal charm and a protective amulet, and at one time, the pentagram was used to symbolize the five wounds of Jesus when he was hanged on the cross. The pentagram and the pentacle have also been used by occult faiths and magicians, and today, the pentagram is used as a symbol for Wicca, Witchcraft, and Paganism. It is also said that the five points of the pentagram represent the five elements, fire, earth, water, air and spirit.
 * The floor of the Ambrosia Temple also forms a pentacle.

Appearances

 * Acheron appears in the Underworld storybook in "The Brothers Jones".