You are here

All Site ContentMacbethAct 3Scene 5
Back to the Play
Acheron
Allusion
Act 3,
Scene 5
Lines 2-16

An explanation of the allusion to Acheron in Act 3, Scene 5 of myShakespeare’s Macbeth.

Hecate

Have I not reason, beldams, as you are
saucy and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death,
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never called to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?
And which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now: get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me i'th' morning; thither he

“Acheron” is a classical allusion to the river of Acheron in Greek mythology. Acheron is the river of woe in Hades, the underworld in which all the dead reside.