You are here

Acheron
Mythological Reference
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 355-366

An explanation of the reference to Acheron in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Oberon

Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight.
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
And lead these testy rivals so astray
As one come not within another's way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong,
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius.
And from each other look thou lead them thus
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.

Acheron was a river in Hades, the underworld, which, according to pre-Christian mythology, was where everyone's soul went after death. In the imagery of Shakespeare's time, Hades was imagined as a very dark place indeed.