Avernus
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The entrance to Hell or the underworld, or the underworld itself.
"His fiery eies are fixt vpon the earth. As if he now deuiſ’d some Stratageme: Or meant to pierce Auernus darkſome vauts. To pull the triple headed dog from hell."
- 2 A lake in Southern Italy.
"I perceive the Lake Avernus, an extinguished volcano, whose waves once inspired terror."
Example
More examples""There, when at Cumae landing from the main, / Avernus' lakes and sounding woods ye gain, / thyself shalt see, within her rock-hewn shrine, / the frenzied prophetess, whose mystic strain / expounds the Fates, to leaves of trees consign / the notes and names that mark the oracles divine.""
Etymology
From Latin Avernus, from Ancient Greek ἄορνος (áornos), ἄϝορνος (áwornos, “birdless”), from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + ὄρνις (órnis, “bird”). The lack of birds was likely due to fatal gases like carbon dioxide seeping from the volcanically active lake.