Phlegethon
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In Greek mythology, the river Phlegethon ("lake of fire") was one of the five rivers of the underworld, along with the rivers Styx, Lethe, Cocytus, and Acheron. It flowed with fire that burned but did not consume fuel.
It was parallel to the river Styx. It is said[citation needed] that the goddess Styx was in love with Phlegethon, but she was consumed by his flames and sent him to Hades. Eventually when Zeus accepted her river to flow through, they reunited.
In Dante's Inferno Phlegethon is described as a river of blood that boils souls. It is in the Seventh Circle and is guarded by centaurs. Here are punished the shades who committed crimes of violence against their fellow men (see Canto XI, 34-39). Here are murderers and tyrants; men who through their violent deeds in life caused hot blood to flow and now themselves sunk in flowing, boiling blood.
Also, it is a river traveled upon by the Incarnation of War, named Mym, in the Piers Anthony novel Wielding a Red Sword. When Mym is lured into Hell, he decides to incite rebellion against the forces of Satan and uses four of the five major waterways of Hell, among which are the River Lethe, the Archeron, the River Kyoktys, and the River Styx.
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